A GUIDE 

TO AN 

IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



JOHN S. FOLD?, 5, BACHELOR'S-WALK. 



A GUIDE 



IRISH GENTLEMAN 

IN HIS 

SEARCH FOR A RELIGION. 

S 




REV. MORTIMER O'SULLIVAN, A.M. 

RECTOR OF KILLYMAN. 



))) > ) 3 } ) 
1 



'•'Strike! But hear me."— themistocles. 




DUBLIN : 
WILLIAM CURRY, JUN. AND COMPANY. 

SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL, LONDON. 




1833. 



TO THOSE 
OF THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND 
WHO ARE WILLING TO BELIEVE 
THAT THEIR COUNTRY HAD 
A NATIONAL FAITH AND A NATIONAL CHURCH 
BEFORE THE PAPACY OF ADRIAN IV. 
THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED, 
BY ONE, WHO, 
IF NOT THEIR DEVOTED SERVANT, 
HAS EVER ENDEAVOURED 
TO APPROVE HIMSELF 

THEIR SINCERE FRIEND. 



CONTENTS. 



Pa^e 

Preface . . . i 

Introduction . . . . v 

Chap. I. Errors incident to unprovided Travel — Apos- 
tolical Fathers — Clemens, Ignatius — Unwar- 
ranted inferences from their writings . 1 

Chap. II. Eucharist — Necessity of defining Doctrine — 

Churches of Rome and of England . 17 

Chap. III. Testimony to Religious Truth — Scripture — 

Fathers — Jerome — Edinburgh Review . 29 

Chap. IV. Testimony — Councils — Creeds — Liturgies — 

Fathers — Ignatius — Justin Martyr . 39 

Chap, V. Testimonies unsatisfactory where not fully 
stated — Augustine's Rule of Interpretation — 
Erasmus — Pascal . . . .61 

Chap. VI. Discipline of the Secret — Calumnies against 

early Christians — Impostures of Heretics . 74 

Chap. VII. Testimonies — Councils — Creeds — Liturgies 

— Canon of the Mass now observed in Ireland 95 

Chap. VIII. Scripture — Cyril of Jerusalem — Sixth 
Chapter of St. John — 1 Epistle to Corinthians, 
c. 11 110 

Chap. IX. Transubstantiation compared with our Lord's 
Incarnation — the Trinity — Church of Rome 
cruel 129 

Chap. X. Tradition — Council of Trent, Irenseus, Pro- 
testant Doctrine — 2 Thessalonians . .140 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. XL Unbroken Succession — Baronius, Sponda- 
nus, Bellarmine — Papal Chair — Right of Pri- 
vate Judgment — Gregory Naziazen, Jerome — 
Exclusive Salvation — Creed of Pope Pius — 
Council of Trent, Scriptures — Dr. Murray — 
Dr. Doyle . . . . .161 

Chap. XII. Infallibility. Scripture not to be adduced 
by Roman Catholics, because its meaning has 
been left unsettled — Erasmus — Jerome — Chry- 
sostom. False translation — Creed of Pius I V. 185 

Chap. XIII. Infallibility — Abuse of Freedom — Valen- 
tinians — Rationalists — Infallible Guide not as- 
certained — Bellarmine — Augustine — Canonical 
Books of Scripture — Jerome — Council of 
Trent . . . . .209 

Chap. XIV. Resemblance between the Church of Rome 
and the Church of the Fathers — Lights — In- 
cense, &c. — Worship of Relics, &c. — Basil — 
Origen — Chrysostom . . . 224 

Chap. XV. Ancient Faith of Ireland — Singular Method 
of Defence — Church of Ireland independent — 
Baronius — Lanigan — Adrian's Grant . 248 

Chap. XVI. Council of Trent bears testimony to the 
corruption of Romish Doctrine, and does not 
reform it — Index Expurgatorius — Catechism — 
Missal . . ... .273 

Chap. XVII. Termination of Trent Council — Confes- 
sion of Incompetency — Reformers — Luther — 
Calumnies against him — Cranmer — Hildebrand 
Canonized .... 283 

Chap. XVIII. Church of Ireland — Testimony to its 
doctrine contrasted with the testimonies afforded 
by the Church of Rome — Peculiar character of 
the Church of England . . . 298 

Concluding Address to the Roman Catholic Reader . 330 



Appendix . . . . . .341 



PREFACE. 



It is hoped, that but little apology will be required 
to justify the appearance of the following pages. 
" Is there not a cause?"* After an attack upon our 
venerable religion, of a character such as the fol- 
lowing pages shall sufficiently expose, some defence 
would, naturally, be looked for on the part of 
the Clergy of the established Church. Whether the 
defence here offered be worthy of the cause, it will 
be for others to judge. The public are fully aware 
of the very short time within which it has been pre- 
pared, and the author confidently expects that it will 
be received with all reasonable indulgence. 

* 1 Book of Samuel, chap. xvii. verse 29. 



11 



PREFACE. 



Not that he is desirous that his errors, if he has 
fallen into any, should be excused or palliated, or that 
his deficiencies, and of these he is fully conscious, 
should be overlooked ; but, he earnestly hopes that the 
reader may not mistake the inaccuracy, incidental to 
hurried composition, for weakness of argument, or 
imagine, that if, in the course of one short month, he 
may not have entirely succeeded in exposing the 
weakness or unravelling the sophistry of the ingenious 
author of the Travels of an Irish Gentleman, the pro- 
positions contained in that popular work, should be 
considered as established because they may not, in 
these pages, have received a sufficiently satisfactory 
refutation. 

It is hoped, that this defence will exhibit but 
little appearance of controversial bitterness. It 
may be truly stated, that the author was more anx- 
ious that his words should impress conviction, than 
carry confutation ; and that any little triumph as an 
antagonist, which he may have imagined himself en- 
titled to claim, was not thought of in comparison 
with the deep and the overpowering interest which 
he felt in the spiritual welfare of his Roman Catholic 
brethren. His hearty desire has been to lay before 
them such a statement of the case between their 



PREFACE. Hi 

Church and that which is, as yet, by law established 
in these countries, as might lead to a candid recon- 
sideration of the great questions at issue between 
them ; convinced, as he is, that nothing but patient 
and unprejudiced attention, on their part, is necessary 
to lead them from the errors of their ways, and cause 
them to adopt, respecting the Church of England, 
the language which Peter addressed to our Lord, 
when he said, " to whom shall we go but to thee, 
for thou hast the words of eternal life." 

There are those who may suppose that the author 
has been unnecessarily parsimonious of the language 
of reproof, and, that the flippancy, the virulence, and 
invective which are not sparingly scattered through 
the pages of " the Travels," required severer ani- 
madversion. Against such censurers, he comforts 
himself with the belief, that the cause of truth will 
not suffer because it has been mildly vindicated ; and 
he would respectfully submit, whether, the import- 
ance of a speedy, as well as an effectual answer to 
the work in question being taken into account, he 
has not judged more wisely in addressing the reason, 
than in appealing to the passions of his readers. He 
has not written to gratify the resentment of angry 
Protestants, but, to satisfy the judgment of reflect- 



iv 



PREFACE. 



ing Roman Catholics ; and, if he may flatter himself 
with having so far succeeded as to induce them to re- 
examine, in a spirit of fairness, the grounds upon 
which their Church lays claim to the spiritual au- 
thority which she exercises, he is well content to 
leave to his accomplished adversary the unenvied 
and unmolested enjoyment of the honours which are 
his due for the sportiveness of his wit, the spright- 
liness of his narrative, the keenness of his sarcasm, 
and the brilliancy of his declamation. 

There is one omission, for which the author 
expects, not merely pardon but favorable acknow- 
ledgments. He has not offered his guidance through 
the daring impieties of rationalism. For the dis- 
covery of truth, it was not necessary to explore all 
the haunts of blasphemy. Those, whose steady 
minds qualify them for such perilous enquiries, have 
a guide, whose rare endowments, and sound prin- 
ciples, must render his escort universally acceptable. 
Is it necessary to name Mr. Rose ? 



V 



INTRODUCTION. 



Public attention has recently been directed towards 
a very popular Work, in which religious controversy 
is invested with unwonted attractions, " Travels of 
an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion." A brief 
outline of the Travellers tale, would seem to fur- 
nish the most appropriate introduction for the follow- 
ing treatise. 

Some time in the year 18 — , a young Irish Gentle- 
man, a student in the University of Dublin, although 
a member of the Church of Rome, was smitten with 
love of a rich benefice, offered, on certain insinuated 
conditions, to his acceptance. He must, it is 
scarcely necessary to add, if he would secure the 
coveted opulence, embrace, at least outwardly, the 
Creed of the Church of England ; and to this, when 
the vision of wealth was first presented to him, 
he could not be reconciled. The inopportune 
reluctance by which he was embarrassed, did not 



vi 



INTRODUCTION. 



arise from any attachment to the religion of his 
fathers. On the contrary, he appears to have dis- 
trusted his Church ; and, when he heard it repre- 
sented as "a system of damnable idolatry, whose 
doctrines had not merely the tendency but the pre- 
pense design, to encourage imposture, perjury, and 
all other monstrous crimes, he was already prepared, 
by the opinions he had himself formed of his brother 
papists, to be but too willing a recipient of such ac- 
cusations against them from others. Though as man 
and as citizen he rose indignantly against these 
charges, yet, as Catholic he quailed inwardly under 
the fear that they were too true."* When such mis- 
givings could not liberate him from the tyranny of 
" that scrupulous point of honor which had kept him 
wedded for better for worse to Popery,"f it is not 
wonderful that the attractions of Ballymuddragget 
were too feeble to deliver him from his unhappy, 
and, (considering the characteristic ingenuousness 
of early youth,) unnatural alliance. 

Better days arrived. The " disabling statutes," 
(which his " scrupulous honor" had converted into 
edicts forbidding God to work the miracle of his 
conversion,) were repealed, and he rejoiced, as all 
generous natures would rejoice, in the freedom to 
lay down the splendid hypocrisy of his previous 
life, and, without prejudice to his worldly reputation, 
become a follower of the truth. He had, even in 
the time of his darkness, " knelt nightly to his pray- 



* Travels, Vol. L p. 4, 5. f Ibid. p. 5. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Vll 



ers, with a degree of trust in God's mercy and grace, 
at which a professor of the five points would have 
been not a little scandalized,"* and which, if the trust 
were sincere, forms an inexplicable contrast to the 
insincerity of his religious professions. Henceforth, 
however, he is free to profess what he believes. He 
can discharge his duty towards God without violating 
the more sacred obligation to his honor ; and, as it 
was not unreasonable to anticipate, the triumph in 
which he welcomed the tidings of emancipation, was 
accompanied by a resolution to manumit himself ; as, 
"with something of the ascendancy strut already 
perceptible" he exclaimed " I will be a Protestant."f 
In his determination to abandon the Church of 
Rome, the young Traveller was wholly uninfluenced 
by the sordid motives which had, upon a former occa- 
sion, not a little disturbed him. He resolved to seek, 
not the most lucrative, but, " the most approved spe- 
cies of Protestantism ;" and, instead of directing his 
search to the articles and liturgy of the Church in 
which he could find great gain, took sincerity for 
his guide, and determined that his religion should be 
" of the purest and most orthodox pattern." J His 
search was not prosperous. He discovered that some 
Protestant communions did not maintain opinions 
which were held by certain divines in the primitive 
Church, that all were not exempt from tenets in old 
time accounted heresy, and he was unable to discern 
in the Ritual of any, that attractive paganism which 



* Travels, Vol. I. p. 9. f lbid - P- 5 - t ^ P- 1L 



Vlll 



INTRODUCTION. 



was, in ancient days, excused as a device to win 
Heathens from their idols, and which, where there 
are no more heathens to allure, the Church of Rome 
has still the boast of retaining;* he was not satisfied 
with the Lutherans or the Rationalists of Germany, 
with the Calvinists of Geneva, or with various mis- 
representations of the Church of England ; and, as 
the only resource from doubt or unbelief, he sur- 
rendered himself to an authority, which, for the pur- 
pose of guarding the faith, places reason among 
those vanities and sinful lusts to which the renun- 
ciations in baptism should be extended. 

An enterprise thus begun, continued, and ended, 
may very naturally be supposed to have suggested 
the compilation of a treatise like that here presented 
to the reader. Whatever may be thought of the 
conclusion at which the young Traveller arrived, 
he seems, by his own report, to have commenced 
his voyage of discovery without due preparation, 
and to have prosecuted it with more of ardor than 
judgment. An exposure of his errors may be o 
use, if it served no other end than to prove, that in 
an enquiry, confessedly the most momentous to which 
human faculties can be directed, providence and 
circumspection are more necessary than genius, an 
that even sincerity itself is not more truly indis 
pensible. 



* Travels, Vol. L p. 187. 



GUIDE 

TO AN 

IRISH GENTLEMAN 



CHAPTER I. 



Errors incident to unprovided Travel — Apostolical Fathers — 
Clemens, Ignatius— Unwarranted inferences from their writings. 

In probable matters, testimony, in order to have its 
real purport ascertained, must be compared with 
each of the conflicting statements which it is to dis- 
credit or establish. The young Irish Traveller ap- 
pears to have been uninstructed by this obvious truth, 
and the manifold errors, with which his pages are 
disfigured, seem no more than the natural conse- 
quences of his forgetfulness or neglect. " From the 
opinions he had himself formed of his brother Pa- 
pists," he entertained the darkest suspicions against 
the Popery that now is ; of Protestantism, his ima- 
ginings appear far more favorable ; of neither 



2 



GUIDE TO AN 



does he pause to enquire if his judgment is correct, 
while, in a spirit far more adventurous than that of 
the eastern critic, who, in order to " convey with 
clearness his opinion" of the poem which had pro- 
voked his envy, found it necessary to take a review 
of all the stories that had ever been related, the pre- 
cipitate young man opens at once the venerable 
tomes of long-departed saints, and seems to expect, 
that the deficiencies of his wilful ignorance are to 
be miraculously supplied, and that, so soon as he has 
ascertained the doctrines which Hermas, and Cle- 
ment, and Ignatius teach, it shall be given him to 
know, what sect, in modern times, embraces or con- 
demns them. 

The issue of such an adventure might have been 
foreseen. A miracle was not vouchsafed for the 
encouragement of rashness, and, the young traveller's 
unacquaintance with modern systems continuing, he 
often fancied that he had discovered exact confor- 
mity, where there was no more than accidental and 
imperfect resemblance, and, where he found Catholic 
doctrine declared and practised, he trembled, as if 
he had detected Popery. 

The third chapter of the Travels offers no unfair 
specimen of the manner in which the young gentle- 
man conducted his enquiries, and of the errors into 
which, for want of that knowledge which was an 
indispensible pre-requisite, he was unhappily misled. 
It contains the recital of his earliest discoveries and 
the expression of his amazement at having made 
them. " Marvellous to me," he writes, " most mar- 
vellous were these discoveries. A pope, relics of 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



8 



saints, apostolical tradition, and a corporal eucharist, 
all in the first ages of the church — who could have 
thought it ?* To this question the proper answer 
should be — all who have read the history of the 
church ; — but if the young enquirer was deceived 
into a notion that where a tradition or a relic was 
named, a doctrine resembling that of the Church of 
Rome was, of necessity, indicated, not the testimo- 
nies of the fathers, but his own undistinguishing 
ardour betrayed him. Protestants do not deny the 
existence of popes, especially in an age when the 
name pope was bestowed on every bishop, but they 
strenuously deny the truth of the Romish doctrine 
as it respects the bishop of Rome ; — Protestants 
doubt not that relics will be preserved and loved as 
memorials of the honored dead, although they oppose 
the Romish doctrine that they should be worship- 
ped ; — unwritten tradition, Protestants are confident, 
conveyed important truths, although, they are also 
confident, it is not of equal authority with Scripture, 
and that a corporal eucharist may be named, they 
are as free to acknowledge, although they may es- 
teem the term coarse, as they are steadfast in con- 
demning transubstantiation. Let it be permitted, 
for the benefit of future enquiries to have expressed 
these acknowledgments. Are they inconsistent with 
the testimonies by which the young traveller appears 
to have been so painfully embarrassed ? 

" Great was my surprise, not unaccompanied, I 
own with a slight twinge of remorse — when in the 



* Travels, Vol. 1. p. 21. 



4 



GUIDE TO AN 



person of one of those simple apostolical writer's, I 
found that I had popped upon a pope — an actual pope ! 
— being the third bishop, after St. Peter, of that very 
Church of Rome which I was now about to desert 
for her modern rival."f It is not difficult to believe, 
that one who felt " great surprise'' when he learned, 
that there was a Bishop of Rome in very early days, 
must have been singularly unprepared for the course 
of enquiry on which the young traveller had entered. 
Indeed, it would scarcely be presumptuous to affirm, 
that such surprise would better grace that class of 
controversialists, who challenge their adversaries, to 
deny, that St. Paul ivrote an epistle to the Romans, or 
to prove, that he addressed any exhortation to the 
Protestants. 

Disproportionate, however, to the occasion, as 
the traveller's remorse and surprise appear to have 
been ; when seen in connection with the documents 
which provoked them, they seem still more unac- 
countable. " There was still," he writes, " enough 
of the Papist lingering in my heart to make me 
turn over the pages of Pope St. Clement with pecu- 
liar respect, and I could not but see that, even in 
those simple, unpolemic times, when the actual ex- 
ercise of authority could be so little called for, the 
jurisdiction of the See of Peter was fully acknow- 
ledged. A schism, or as St. Clement himself de- 
scribes it, a foul and unholy sedition having broken 
out in the Church of Corinth, an appeal was made 
to the Church of Rome for its interference and 



f Travels, Vol. I. p. 14. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



5 



advice, and the epistle which this holy father ad- 
dressed to the Corinthians in answer, is confessedly- 
one of the most interesting monuments of ecclesias- 
tical literature that have descended to us." The 
epistle of Clement is the evidence that " in those 
simple, unpolemic times" when " a foul and unholy 
sedition broke out in the Church of Corinth," " the 
jurisdiction of the See of St. Peter was fully ac- 
knowledged." How comes it, that a single passage 
from the eulogised epistle, or from any similar 
document, is not quoted ? How comes it, that 
the young traveller, in this abstinence, follows ex- 
actly the example of a well-known controversialist, 
who alludes to the epistle of Clement to the Co- 
rinthian Church, but studiously withholds from his 
readers the knowledge of a single syllable of its 
contents. When a practised polemic refers to an 
obscure document, and relies on the indolence of 
modern days for its remaining obscure, it is a matter 
of no difficulty to understand that he is labouring 
in an unhappy vocation, and one does not hesitate 
long, about giving his conduct its proper name. 
But when an ingenuous young man, an Irish Gen- 
tleman, adduces, as favorable to a Romish doctrine, 
an epistle, which, were there not better proof abound- 
ing, would be produced as a strong argument against 
it, and omits the quotation of any one expression 
by which his singular inference could be justified or 
excused, it is difficult indeed to understand his alle- 
gation and his omission, and to give the proceed- 
ing a name which shall be at the same time appro- 
priate and respectful. 



6 



GUIDE TO AN 



The epistle of Clement is, as it has been described, 
an interesting monument of ecclesiastical literature, 
and, although it deals not a little in fable, assuming 
the story of the phoenix as true, and arguing from 
the metamorphoses of that bird in favor of " the 
resurrection," it contains many a charitable exhor- 
tation and many a Christian precept, but not a 
single expression which asserts or implies a title on 
the part of a Roman, or any other bishop, to exercise 
jurisdiction or authority over churches having their 
own episcopal superintendant. Beside, it is to be 
observed, the epistle quoted as that of Clement, is 
not written in his name. It purports to be addressed 
by " the Church of God which is at Rome, to the 
Church of God which is at Corinth," and does not 
once allude to the office, the authority, or the name 
of the honored individual who is its reputed author.* 
And yet it was written on an occasion which impe- 

* It is worthy of remark, that, of late days, the Church of 
Rome refers to this epistle of Clement as a substantive witness 
in her favor, while, in times when the controversy with her 
was better understood, she appears to have been contented 
with endeavouring to weaken the force of the evidence it was 
said to bear against her. In reply to such arguments, as, that, 
if Clement or any other individual possessed supreme or even 
what is now esteemed episcopal authority, his name should have 
appeared, Cotelerius, of the Sorbonne, answers, " Because it 
was the common wish of the apostolic church to see the church 
of the Corinthians at peace, and the concord which was evi- 
dent in the form of the epistle would be a strong incentive." 
Quoniam totius apostoliese ecclesiae commune votum erat, paca- 
tam cernere Corinthorum ecclesiam, a Petroquoque Pauloque 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



7 



ratively demanded the exercise of every righteous 
power by which evil could be averted. A " foul and 
unholy sedition" had broken out. A representation 
of the evil was made to the seat, as it is now 
described, of supreme authority. Had the power or 
jurisdiction of the Roman See been, at that day, 
such as has since been claimed for it, surely it 
is reasonable to conclude, that, in so perilous an 
emergency, it would have made itself felt, and that, 
after having recited what was to be believed or to be 
shunned, it would pronounce a curse on all who 
should disobey ; — or, at least, that it would assert for 
the Bishop of Rome an equal power with that which 
was exercised by the Apostle Paul, and command 
that the Corinthians themselves should put away the 
authors of offence. 

Nothing can less resemble the texture of a Papal 
Rescript or Bull, than Clement's interesting epis- 
tle. It is mild, modest, and persuasive, urgent in 
entreaty, abundant in reasoning, as a fraternal ad- 
monition should be, and, as becomes a fraternal 
admonition, arrogating nothing on the ground of 
mere authority. It recommends the study of the 
Scriptures, "the true oracles of the Holy Spirit," 
it directs the especial attention of the Corinthian 
Churches to the Epistle of St. Paul, " in which 
he admonished you concerning himself and Cephas, 

fundatam, ingensque futurum erat Corinthis incentivum ipsa 
Romanorum simul scribentium concordia." Patr. Apostol. 
The Corinthians were to be influenced by the example of 
Roman concord, not by the authority of the Roman See. 



and Apollos, because even then ye had formed par- 
ties," and, instead of denouncing any who should 
resist its injunctions, utters the following christian 
and charitable exhortation : " Who, among you, is 
generous ; who is merciful ; who is full of love ; let 
him say, if sedition, and discord, and schism have 
arisen on account of me — I depart — I go wherever 
you desire." This is the injunction of Clement, and 
(instead of pronouncing a curse on one who departed 
from Corinth, because he could not accommodate 
himself to the religion of the place,) he adds, that he 
who shall have adopted such a course " shall have 
great honor in the Lord, and every place will receive 
him." If this be the language of popery, it were 
much to be desired, that the modern advocates and 
organs of that calumniated system, would conde- 
scend to receive and to use it. 

The other doctrines by the discovery of which, on 
the first day of his search, the young traveller was 
surprised and agitated, have, as their voucher, an 
epistle of Ignatius, a martyr and Bishop of Antioch, 
whose testimony is adduced, also, in corroboration of 
the papal pretensions. He addressed the Church 
w which presides in the place of "the Roman re- 
gion,"* thus limiting, so far as his testimony can 
have weight, the jurisdiction of the Papal chair, 

* The original of the epistle of St. Ignatius has not been 
found, the earliest copy is a latin version. The place of the 
Roman region extends so far as the jurisdiction of the praefect 
of the city was recognised. Within this the " regionary deacons" 
ministered. — See Baronius Ann. 112-5. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



9 



within bounds, which, were pure doctrine taught in 
the Churches they enclosed, many enlightened Pro- 
testants would not desire to narrow ; but, to the be- 
wildered faculties of the young Hibernian, over whom 
amazement seems to have cast a glamour, an epistle, 
of which the superscription limits the presidency of 
the Roman Church to congregations in a particular 
district, and which no where names or alludes to the 
Bishop of Rome, is read as if it ascribed not presi- 
dency but supreme power, and this, not to the 
Church which it addresses, but to the Bishop whom, 
even by a salutation, it never once acknowledges. 
It would be almost unpardonable to dwell any longer 
on a matter like this, or to offer formal proof that 
" the Church presiding in the place of the Roman 
Region" is not synonymous with " a Pope or a 
Bishop of Rome presiding over the whole Christian 
world"* 

" In speaking of the Docetae, or Phantastics, a 
sect of heretics, who held that Christ was but, in ap- 
pearance, man — a mere semblance or phantasm of 
humanity — Ignatius says, They stay away from the 
eucharist and from prayer because they will not ac- 
knowledge the eucharist to be the flesh of Christ, that 
flesh which suffered for our sins. " Now when it is 
considered that the leading doctrine of the Docetae was, 
that the body assumed by Christ was but apparent, 
there cannot be a doubt that the particular opinion of 
the orthodox to which they opposed themselves, was 
that which held the presence of Christ's body in the 



* Travels, &c. Vol. L p. 16. 



10 



GUIDE TO AN 



Eucharist to be real. It is evident that a figurative 
or unsubstantial presence such as Protestants main- 
tain, would, in no degree, have offended their anti- 
corporeal notions, but, on the contrary, indeed, 
would have fallen in with that wholly spiritual view 
of Christ's nature which had led those heretics to 
deny the possibility of his incarnation ! !" This pas- 
sage has been quoted in full, because it did not ap- 
pear reasonable to require of any reader that he 
should, on secondary evidence, ascribe to the young 
traveller such inaccuracy in reasoning. The Docetae 
accounted it blasphemy to teach that Christ had a 
real body, and yet it would have fallen in with their 
Ci view of his nature" to join in the commemoration of 
a real body given for our sins, a real blood-shedding, 
and a real death and passion. Had the argument 
been, that they who denied Christ's body on the 
cross, must also have denied its presence on the 
altar, a champion of the Church of Rome might 
have found the reasoning inconveniently correct, 
but, to say, that men might, consistently and natu- 
rally, set forth a sign of that, which, they maintained, 
should not be signified because it could not be, is to 
form a conclusion directly at variance with the pre- 
mises from which, by some inexplicable process, it is 
extorted.* 

f The Docetse did not all refrain from the Holy Communion. 
Some received the sacrament not as a commemoration of 
Christ's death and passion, but as a type of their mystical union 
with God. This was not unknown to the author of "the 
Travels" who was aware of another circumstance also, of which 
he does not appear to have made the use which might have 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



11 



The other part of the argument from Ignatius, 
that in which, by accusing heretics of denying, he 
may be regarded as, in his own person, affirming, the 
doctrine of the real presence, shall be in due time 
considered. For the present it may be sufficient to 
remind the reader, that many preliminary matters 
must be decided before the judgment of the martyr 
can be thoroughly understood. For example — 
Did he write literally? What is the eucharist — 
Does that term signify the visible elements ? Does 
it mean outward participation? Does it mean an 
inward and spiritual grace ? Before the expression 
of Ignatius can be fully understood, all these ques- 
tions must be answered. In a word, whether his 
testimony favor the doctrine of the Roman or the 

been expected from a young and ingenuous enquirer. He 
writes, note to p. 177, vol. I. " To the Marcionites of the next 
age who had also their eucharist, though believing with the 
Docetse that Christ's body was but apparent, it was urged as an 
argument both by Irenseus and Tertullian that in owning the 
sacrament of the body and blood, they confuted their own opi- 
nion. Will it still, after this be contended that the ancient 
Christians did not believe in the reality of the presence." The 
reader will be better able to answer when he has before him the 
arguments which these early writers employed. " Irenaeus 
argues that matter must have been framed by God the Father, 
otherwise heretics " in offering what according to us are his 
creatures show him covetous of what is not his own." He con- 
tends, that matter is capable of a resurrection, adopting a simi- 
lar argumentum ad hominem. " As," (he assumes the admission,) 
" bread which is of the earth, receiving invocation of God, is no 
longer common bread, but Eucharist, consisting of two natures 
an earthly and a heavenly, so also our bodies receiving Eu- 



12 



GUIDE TO AN 



Reformed Church cannot be known, until the doc- 
trine held by these communions respectively has 
been, at least partially, described and comprehended. 
To afford this indispensible information shall be at- 
tempted in the ensuing chapter ; the remainder of 
the present must be devoted to the other doctrines 
for which Ignatius is called to answer ; those respect- 
ing relics and tradition. 

" On turning to an account of the martyrdom of 
this same father, I fell upon a no less glaring speci- 
men of popish practice. Ignatius, as is well known 
to all readers of Martyrology, was delivered up to 
be devoured by Lions in the Amphitheatre at Rome. 
After the victim had been dispatched, the faithful 
deacons who had accompanied him on his journey, 

charist are no longer corruptible, having hope of a resurrection." 
(Iren. lib. iv. c. 34.) The argument of Irenseus not only 
admits the continuance of the bread, but would, under a sup- 
position that the substance of bread departed, be an absurdity. 
The reply would then be obvious : since the bread, when 
blessing has come upon it ceases to exist, so also shall our 
bodies cease to be ; — and to the former allegation heretics would 
reply, — nay, we do not esteem God covetous of what is not 
his own, since we offer not bread, but Christ his blessed Son. 
The argument of Tertullian is still more clear and decisive. 
i( He made it, (the bread) his body, saying this is my body ? 
that is, the figure of my body, but there could not " be a 
figure, unless there had been a real body." Lib. 4. Cont. Mar. 
C. 40. Now let the reader answer the question, and letjrim 
reflect on the simplicity of this most credulous young man, who 
could be persuaded that the Marcionites found it practicable to 
believe in transubstantiation, although they conceived it impos- 
sible that Christ could have a body. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



13 



gathered up, as we are told, the few bones which 
the wild beasts had spared, and carrying them back 
to Antioch deposited them there religiously in a 
shrine, round which annually on the day of his mar- 
tyrdom the faithful assembled, and in memory of his 
self-devotion kept vigil round his relics."* There is 
something to be complained of here. The enquiring 
gentleman professes to have commenced his studies 
with the five " apostolical fathers,"f and yet he proves 
the " popish practice" respecting relics, not by one 
of these early writers, but by the compiler, whoever 
he was, of " the martyrdom of St. Ignatius ;" — and 
because, perhaps, he found inserted in one volume by 
Cotelerius, the epistle of the Saint and the narrative 
of the historian, our traveller argues as if the autho- 
rity of each were equally good : and thus, by the 
help, it may have been, of legends belonging to the 
middle ages, or, for ought his reader has been in- 
structed, of the martyrologists of times more modern, 
he finds a " Popish practice" prevailing at the com- 
mencement of the second century, and attested by 
the Apostolic Fathers. 

The confusion of mind in which he was betrayed 
into so grave an error, would have been more par- 
donable in one who had not read that beautiful 
epistle of Ignatius which the young traveller, it is to 
be supposed, had carefully studied. It may, indeed, 
be termed beautiful, not because of the grace or elo- 
quence, or wisdom of its expressions, but for the 
exhibition it gives of that steady faith, and that self- 



Vid. 1. p. 21. 



t P. 14. 



14 



GUIDE TO AN 



renouncing humility, by which christians are adorned 
and sustained. But there is a peculiarity in the 
epistle by which the Irish Gentleman ought to have 
been instructed. No man can read it, without be- 
ing struck with the earnestness of the martyr, that 
his death should be such as must render the worship 
of his reliques impossible. " Entice them" (the wild 
beasts) 6 6 to be my sepulchre, and to leave nothing of 
my body, that so, after my sleep, I may not be trou- 
blesome to any. Then shall I be a true disciple of 
Jesus Christ, when the world shall not see my body.* 
Had it been believed, when this epistle was written, 
that miracles were wrought by the relics of departed 
Saints, Ignatius would not have been desirous to 
withhold from his flock, memorials which interest 
as well as affection would urge them to covet. It 
was, however, scarcely necessary to offer this re- 
mark. It is not alleged in the passage quoted in " The 
Travels" that miracles were wrought at the vigils 
kept round those honoured remains. The practice, 
which the young traveller describes, was rather 
dangerous as leading to superstition, than idola- 
trous in itself, and, if he had compared it with the 
doctrine held by the Church of Rome at this day, 
he would, perhaps, have understood the wisdom of 
the martyrs earnest prayer, and the faithfulness and 
prudence of the reformed churches. 

" It should have been mentioned, also, to make 
the matter still worse, that, when on his way through 
Asia, to the scene of his sufferings, this illustrious 



* Ignat. ad Rom. 4. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 15 

father, in exhorting the churches to be on their 
guard against heresy, impressed earnestly upon them 
to hold fast by the traditions of the Apostles, " thus 
sanctioning that twofold rule of faith, the unwritten as 
well as the written word, which by all good Protes* 
tants is repudiated as one of the falsest of the false 
doctrines of popery."* This should have been men- 
tioned — and more — namely, where it had been found. 
The expression in italics may be read in the Ecclesi- 
astical History of Eusebius.f " He exhorted them 
to hold fast by the tradition of the apostles which, for 
safety, (being now about to suffer martyrdom \) he 
thought it necessary to have committed to writing." 
Can this be the passage in which unwritten tradition 
is recognised as a portion of the twofold rule of faith, 
distinct from the scripture. Here it is broadly stated 
that the tradition of the apostles, so far as it was ne- 
cessary to the faith, was written. How could it 
constitute a testimony distinct from scripture ? Has 
it become unwritten by having its records lost ; are 
christians of the nineteenth century called on to be- 
lieve, that they who lost irrecoverably the written 
documents, have guarded faithfully the truths which 
those writings were designed to secure ; and can the 
Church of Rome adduce in favor of her claims to be 
respected as the depositary of unwritten tradition, a 
testimony, which seems to have no other scope or 
purpose than that of convicting her of negligence or 
falsifying her doctrine ? 



* Trav. Vol. 1. p. 21. f Eus - Hist - Lib - 3 - c - 36 - 



16 



GUIDE TO AN 



The passage from Eusebius has been advanced, — one 
Reverend divine quoted part of it — the British critic 
completed the quotation and exposed the artifice. 
A worthy successor tried it in another form, — the 
Rev. James Phelan separated the words of the mo- 
dern polemic from the expressions of the historian, 
and again tradition was found wanting.* It is some- 
thing too much, although not without precedent, that 
this relic of testimony in favor of tradition, , itself a 
tradition repeatedly discredited and disgraced, should 
have, been palmed on the unpractised simplicity of 
the young Hibernian, and that he should be made 
the luckless instrument, by whom the often proffered 
and rejected deceit, with all its brands of forgery 
upon it, was to be re-issued into controversial circu- 
lation. 

* The " Catholic doctrine of tradition" by the Rev. James 
Phelan, displays in a most unpretending form, much research 
and ability, and will amply reward the student who makes him- 
self acquainted with its argument and learning. The object of 
its author is to trace out the " tradition" which was in old time 
had in especial honor, and to prove that it was identical with 
what we term "the Apostles' Creed." 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



17 



CHAPTER II. 

Eucharist — Necessity of defining Doctrine — Churches of Rome 
and of England. 

The exposures in the preceding chapter have, it is 
hoped, satisfied the reader, that, to render the testi- 
mony of ancient writers subsidiary to the purposes 
of religious enquiry, a little previous knowledge is 
indispensible. We will, therefore, before examining 
the sentiments of the early Fathers on any point of 
doctrine, endeavour to ascertain existing opinions 
l respecting it, assured, that, to one but superficially 
acquainted with the Creeds which are now professed, 
the Catholic doctrine of primitive times may often 
seem a counterpart of some modern corruption. 
We begin with " the Eucharist" as well because of 
the real importance of the doctrine, as for the pro- 
minence given it, and the consequences attached to 
it, in the Irish Gentleman's " Travels." 

When we enquire into the dogmas of the Church 
of Rome, it is of moment to learn their character from 
documents of acknowledged authority. Individual 

c 



18 GUIDE TO AN 

divines, and even collegiate bodies who have some 
temporary purpose to serve, who write with the pas- 
sion of controversy in their hearts, or the fear of it 
before their eyes, cannot be expected to communicate 
the species of information which should satisfy an en- 
quirer, and for which a Church is to be held respon- 
sible. It will be necessary, therefore, to ascertain the 
doctrine which it is our purpose to examine, from those 
public decrees and those authorized formularies in 
which the Church of Rome declares that she speaks 
and is represented. The received and well known 
belief respecting the eucharist is, that it is at once a 
sacrifice* and a sacrament, f in which Christ, in the 
one, is offered as a bodily oblation to the Father, and 
in the other, is taken bodily into the bodies of all 
communicants. Such a statement may suffice where 
the doctrine is to be received without enquiry, but 
where it is to be examined and judged, an exposition 
ampler and more exact is necessary. 

The Council of Trent in the thirteenth session 
passed a decree concerning the eucharist, in which 
the doctrine thenceforth to be preached and taught 
was explained and defined. J 

Chapter 1. declared that " in the sacrament of the 
eucharist, after the consecration of the bread and 
wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, very God and very man, 
is truly, really, and substantially, contained under 
the species (or appearance) of these sensible things. 



* Cone. Trid. Sess. 22. f Ibid. Sess. 13. 

\ Ibid. Dec. de Euch. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



19 



Chapter 2. that our blessed Lord instituted the 
sacrament to be a memorial of his death — a spiritual 
aliment of our souls, a pledge of glory to come, and 
a symbol of the unity of that body of which he him- 
self is the head. 

Chapter 3. that the body and blood, soul and 
divinity of our Lord Christ exist entire under the 
appearances of either bread or wine " by virtue of 
the natural connexion and concomitance, by which 
these parts in our Lord, who is raised from the dead 
and dieth no more, are joined together, &c. 

Chapter 4. that by consecration of the bread and 
wine there is made a change of the whole substance 
of the bread into the substance of the body of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and of the whole substance of the 
wine into the substance of his blood ; a change 
which is appropriately called by the Holy Catholic 
Church, transubstantiation. 

Chapter 5. that the faithful are required to pay to 
the sacrament the worship of Latria which is due to 
God. 

These declarations which are, each of them, en- 
forced by an anathema, are those of the most mo- 
ment to be considered. They will at once render it 
clear to the reader why Protestant controversialists 
have applied themselves to the Romish doctrine of 
the eucharist as exhibited in the decree respecting 
transubstantiation, rather than in that which affirms 
the real presence. In truth, according to the natu- 
ral order, the first decree should have declared the 
change which the elements of bread and wine un- 
dergo, and this change, of which it is important to 



20 



GUIDE TO AN 



bear in mind an exact remembrance, is a conversion 
of the substances of bread and wine into the sub- 
stances of our Lord's body and blood. 

The reader need not be under an apprehension 
that he is about to be beguiled into a metaphysical 
disquisition ; but it is of much consequence that he 
keep in mind the distinction between "substance" 
and " body." Had the Council of Trent denned 
the meaning of these words, it would perhaps have 
rendered comment unnecessary ; but, inasmuch as, 
employing scholastic terms, it left them unex- 
plained, it is fitting to repeat, that, in the decree 
respecting transubstantiation, the doctrine affirmed 
is, that one part of the elements has been changed 
into one part of the body and blood of our Lord, 
that body and blood consisting of substance, soli- 
dity and other sensible qualities, and " substance" 
only having been regarded in the decree. The im- 
portance of this distinction will appear hereafter, — 
it is now noticed only for the purpose of fixing the 
precise nature of the change denoted by the word 
transubstantiation. 

The doctrine of the eucharist is not yet explained. 
It is necessary that the circumstances by which the 
consecration of the sacrament is affected shall also 
be made known. The Council of Florence had de- 
clared* "that the sacraments are made up of three 
parts," viz. : things as the matter, words as the 
form, and the person of the priest administering 
with the intention of doing what the church does — 

* De9- Eug. 4. Hsec omnia sacramenta tribus perficiantur, &c. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



21 



of which, if any be wanting, the sacrament is not 
administered (perficitur)." The Missal of Pius IV. 
and Clement VIII. (published according to a decree 
of the Council of Trent)* is precise in its enumera- 
tion of the defects whereby the consecration of the 
eucharist may be affected. — There may be defects in 
matter, in form, and in the person of the minister. 

L In form ; if the minister have not the intention 
to consecrate, or if he take anv thin ^ from the words 
of consecration, or change them so that their mean- 
ing is altered — the sacrament is not administered. 

2. In his person ; if he have not really obtained 
priest's orders, the consecration is void. 

3. In the matter ; if the bread be not wheaten, or 
so mixed with other grain as not to remain wheaten, 
or, if it be otherwise corrupt, there is no consecra- 
tion — if it were made with rose (or distilled) water, 
the consecration is doubtful. 

If the wine has become sour or putrid, or has 
been made of sour or unripe grapes, or has been 
so mixed with water f that it has been adultera- 

* See Sess. 25. De Ind. 

f The Council of Trent, session 22, prescribes that water 
should be mingled with wine in the chalice, and pronounces an 
anathema against all who gainsay. It is abundantly evident, 
that, in primitive times, water was mingled with wine, although 
it does not appear that either Trent or any former Council make 
sufficient provision for satisfying enquiries, that the water partici- 
pates in the change which it pronounces to take place in the 
wine. The Catechism of the Council of Trent affirms, that, 
although the priest who should neglect to mingle water, would 
be guilty of a mortal sin, the sacrament might nevertheless be 



22 



GUIDE TO AN 



ted * — there is no consecration. The doctrine of the 
Church of Rome, therefore, as derived from the most 
authentic sources, may be thus stated : 

1. If the officiating priest had been validly or- 
dained, to which previous baptism was indispensible. 

2. If he had the intention of doing what the 
church does. 

3. If he spoke the prescribed words, or others, of 
equivalent signification. 

4. If the directions respecting the bread, and the 
wine, and the water, have been carefully observed — 

There is a change of the substances of the visible 
elements into the substancesf of our Lord s body and 

administered, and proceeds as follows : " But the priests ought 
to take care, that, as, in the sacred mystery, they ought to min- 
gle water with the wine, so also that they pour but a little there- 
into. For by the opinion and judgment of ecclesiastical writers, 
that water is turned into wine. Therefore, Pope Honorius writes 
thus concerning it, <« there has been for a long time in your 
parts a pernicious abuse, to wit, that there is used a greater 
quantity of water in the sacrifice than of wine, when, according 
to the reasonable practice of the general church, there ought 
to be used a far greater quantity of wine than of water." — 
Catechism of Council of Trent, Dublin, p. 171. 

* Vel ei admixtum tantum aquse ut vinum sit corruptum. — 
Missal 

f Cone. Trid. Sess. 13. Canon 2. " If any say that in the 
holy sacrament of the eucharist the substance of the bread and 
wine remain with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and deny that admirable and singular conversion of the whole 
substance of the bread into body, and the whole substance of 
the wine into blood, the species of bread and wine alone 
remaining, which conversion the Catholic Church most aptly 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



23 



blood, (the substances of the bread and wine no 
longer remaining) and, by concomitance, the soul 
and divinity also become present on the altar to 
receive the adoration which should be offered to 
God ; but, if any of the required conditions has 
been omitted — even if the water exceed the propor- 
tion it should bear (and which has not been speci- 
fied) to the wine with which it is mingled — there is 
no consecration or change ; and the church which 
declares, that Christ himself is the great officiating 
High Priest,* declares also, that accident, or neglect, 
or fraud, may prevent his being offered on the altar. 

It is not intended at present to enlarge this account 
of Romish doctrine, adding to it an enumeration of 
all the minute circumstances by which it could be 
more fully characterized, or examining arrange- 
ments respecting it for which the favor of antiquity 
is not asserted. Thus, communion in one kind is 
confessedly not conformable to the practice of early 
times.f It need not, therefore, for our present pur- 
pose, be noticed in a preliminary exposition of doc- 
trine, which is perhaps as ample as the occasion re- 
quires, when it recites the belief, that, where the di- 
rections of the Church are observed, the substance 
of the visible elements departs, and that of Christ's 
body and blood, together with his soul and divinity, 

names transubstantiation, let him be anathema." Thus the 
name which is in the decree given to a change into the sub- 
stance, is, in the canon, assigned to a change into the body 
itself, consisting of substance and accidents. 

* Cone. Trid. Sess. 22, c. 2. f Trid. Sess. 21. 



24 GUIDE TO AN 

becomes present, — and that, where certain numerous 
and subtle conditions are not complied with, a sacrifice 
is not offered, nor is a sacrament received. 

The doctrine of the Church of England in some 
particulars agrees with that of the Roman Church : 
in some is strongly opposed to it. The catechism, 
the articles, and the communion service in " the 
Book of Common Prayer set forth clearly the faith 
of the Protestants of the Church of England on the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The catechism, 
having first defined the word sacrament, as signify- 
ing the outward and visible sign of an inward and 
spiritual grace given to us, ordained by Christ him- 
self as a means whereby we receive the same, and a 
pledge to assure us thereof," proceeds to expound 
the doctrine of the eucharist. " It was instituted 
for the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the 
death of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive 
thereby." The outward part or sign is bread and wine 
which the Lord hath commanded to be received" — 
" the inner part or thing signified, the body and 
blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken 
and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." 
With this the definition in the 28th article coincides, 
" The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the 
love that Christians ought to have among themselves, 
one to another ; but rather is a sacrament of our 
Redemption by Christ's death, insomuch that to 
such as rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the 
same, the bread which we break is a partaking of 
the body of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing 
is a partaking of the blood of Christ," &c. &c. " The 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



25 



body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the 
supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. 
And the mean whereby the body of Christ is re- 
ceived and eaten in the supper is faith." To the 
same effect a passage in the communion service, 
u for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and 
drink his blood ; then we dwell in Christ, and Christ 
in us ; we are one with Christ, and Christ is one 
with us." Again, in the prayer of consecration, 
" Hear us, O merciful Father, we most humbly 
beseech thee, and grant that we receiving these thy 
creatures of bread and wine, according to thy Son 
our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in re- 
membrance of his death and passion, may be par- 
takers of his most blessed body and blood." Hence, 
then, it is plain, that the Church of England regards 
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a memorial 
of the death of Christ, a pledge of his love,* a 
mean, also, of grace and spiritual communion with 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

In all these particulars, it is probable, the Church 
of Rome would say, that Protestant error is only 
in deficiency. There are other matters in which 
opposition between the churches is more decided. 
The Church of England directly protests against a 
great fundamental dogma of the Romish creed — 
" Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance 
of bread and wine) in the Supper of the Lord, can- 
not be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to 
the plain words of Scripture, overturneth the nature 

* Exhortation in Com. Ser. 



26 



GUIDE TO AN 



of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many 
superstitions."* She denies also that the wicked 
" eat the body of Christ." " The wicked and such 
as be void of a lively faith, although they do car- 
nally and visibly press with their teeth (as Saint 
Augustine saith) the sacrament of the body and 
blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of 
Christ, but rather to their condemnation, do eat and 
drink the sign or sacrament of so great a thing."f 
Another tenet deserving of note in the English 
Church is, " that the unworthiness of the ministers 
hindereth not the effect of the sacraments," " foras- 
much as they do not the same in their own name, 
but in Christ's, and do minister by his commission 
and authority." " The grace of God's gifts" is not 
" diminished from such as by faith and rightly do 
receive the holy sacraments ministered unto them, 
which be effectual, because of Christ's institution and 
promise, although they be ministered by evil men." 
The Church of Rome assents partially to the truth 
of this principle, by declaring that a priest in mortal 
sin could administer the sacrament,^ but in the doc- 
trine of " Intention" contravenes it. 

To recapitulate briefly, the main points of agree- 
ment and difference between the Churches of Eng- 
land and of Rome respecting the sacrament of the 

* Article 28. f Article 29. 

| If any say that a minister being in mortal sin, though other- 
wise observing every thing essential to consecrate and administer 
the sacrament, does not consecrate or confer, let him be ana- 
thema. Cons. Trid. Sess. 7. Cap. 12 De Sacr. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



27 



Lord's Supper; it may be said, that both believe in 
" the real presence, which one creed pronounces to 
be purely spiritual, the other declares to be corporal 
also. 2dly. Both believe that the sacrament is to be 
consecrated by priests in the name and by the autho- 
rity of the Lord Christ; but the Church of Rome af- 
firms that the neglect or the malevolence of a minister, 
may vitiate the form of consecration ;* the Church 

* I am not unaware that individuals in the Roman Catholic 
Church, deny that she holds the doctrine of intention in a sense 
which renders the consecration of the sacrament a matter of 
doubt. The fact is, that the declaration in the Council of 
Trent may admit of divers interpretations. " If a man say that 
the intention, &c. &c. is not necessary," &c. &c. some say, may 
imply no more than a necessity affecting the minister, that he 
avoid the sin of irreverance, but not affecting the sacrament or 
the congregation. As to the passage in the acts of the council 
of Florence, it is said, that it rests rather on the authority of 
the Pope than of the Council, having been inserted in an epis- 
tle and not formally decided in the assembly. But this, at 
least, is certain, that the highest authority to which access can be 
had, the authority, too, which, when its decision is not opposed, 
is considered paramount, favors the opinion of those who hold 
what is commonly received as the doctrine of intention. The 
Council of Trent decided that intention was necessary. It also 
declared its trust, that, should doubt, as to the meaning of any of 
its decrees, arise, the pope would call, if necessary, a provin- 
cial or a general council, or adopt such other means as he 
thought most effectual to remove doubt or restore order. Sess. 
25. Add to this that the Pope's Missal, published by order of 
the council, contains, so far as Papal authority is to be regarded, 
unquestionable proof, that, without intention, the sacrament is 
not administered. — " If any priest should have before him eleven 



28 



GUIDE TO AN 



of England ascribes to her ministers no such power, 
believing, that " the sacraments be effectual because 
of Christ's institution and promise, although they be 
ministered by evil men. 3dly. Both churches hold 
that the wicked and faithless eat to their condemna- 
tion ; but the Church of Rome, in the doctrine of 
transubstantiation, teaches that the body and blood, 
soul, and divinity, of Christ are taken into the body 
of the guilty communicant ; while the Church of 
England affirms, that the dishonor is done not to 
Christ, but to the symbols of his body and blood. 
In fine, both affirm * that Christ instituted the sacra- 
ment in two kinds ; the Church of England adheres 
to the rule thus divinely recommended ; the Church 
of Rome, on her own authority, has altered it. 

hosts, and should intend to consecrate only ten, not determining 
which ten he intends, he does not consecrate, because intention 
is required. — Rom. Miss, De Defect 

* " Although Christ in the last supper instituted the sacrament 
in species of bread and wine, and delivered it to the Apostles," 
&c. Cone. Trid. Sess. 21. C. 1. D. Com. 




IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



29 



CHAPTER III. 

Testimony to Religious Truth — Scripture— -Fathers — Jerome- 
Edinburgh Review. 

" In a sermon which I once heard preached by a 
fellow of our university, there was an observation 
put strongly by the preacher which I now called to 
mind for my guidance in the enquiry I was about to 
institute. In like manner," said the preacher " as 
streams are always clearest near their source, so the 
first ages of Christianity will be found to have been 
the purest.* " Taking this obvious position for 
granted, the deduction was, of course, evident, that 
to the doctrines and practice of the early ages of the 
Church, I must have recourse to find the true doc- 
trines and practice of Protestantism." Accordingly, 
our traveller applied himself to the study of the early 
fathers. " Of the scriptures," he says, " my know- 
lege had hitherto been scanty, but the plan I now 
proposed, was to make my study of the sacred 
volume concurrent with this enquiry into the wri- 
tings of its first expounders, so that the text and the 



* Travels, Vol. I. p. 10. 



30 



GUIDE TO AN 



comment might, by such juxta position, shed light 
upon each other." * 

At a future day, the world, may, perhaps, be fa- 
voured with an account of the discoveries made in 
the Holy Scriptures by the light thus shed upon 
them. For the present, we must be contented with 
the result of the investigation, (certainly not con- 
ducted by the light of scripture) through the pages 
of some early fathers. Indeed, it would not be 
rash to affirm, that so far from having scripture for 
his guide in the labyrinth into which he daringly 
and unadvisedly entered, the young traveller must 
have, not unfrequently, with a felicity, which (if we 
had not the example of sleep-walkers) we should con- 
sider to be of set design, evaded plain scriptural 
provisions against the errors into which he was be- 
wildered. For example, how could one who had 
not contrived to omit, as he read the Acts of the 
Apostles, the narrative of St. Stephen's martyrdom 
and burial, be for an instant embarrassed by conduct 
attributed to the followers of Ignatius, at variance as 
it was with the martyr's expressed wishes, and alien 
from apostolic example ? The truth appears to be, 
that, having commenced his " search of a religion," in 
ignorance of Scripture, he did not very accurately 
estimate the difference in authority between the sa- 
cred volume and the testimonies of men ; and, appor- 
tioning his hours of study according to the measure 
which his eye had made, of those numerous and 
massy volumes on which the names of the fathers 



* Travels, Vol. I. p. 11. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



31 



were inscribed, and that small book in which is con- 
tained divine truth without any mixture of error, he 
soon was brought to forget his original design, and 
to think, that, except where the word of God was in- 
troduced to his respect by its honoured expositors, 
he might spare himself the necessity of consulting it. 

This was an unhappy error. Had the sentiment 
quoted from the preacher been properly understood, 
it would have suggested a very different course of 
study. It would have recommended the enquirer to 
consult first the documents of highest authority, 
commencing with those which were the most ancient ; 
and it would have warned him against bestowing an 
undue proportion of his time or thoughts on writings, 
which no Church or assembly of christian men has 
ever accounted of equal value with those inserted in 
the canon of scripture. 

This observation is not made in a spirit which de- 
preciates all reference to the monuments of the ages 
immediately subsequent to that of our Lord and 
his apostles, nor with the purpose of denying to the 
testimonies borne by early Christians, due honor and 
authority. As witnesses of the doctrine and disci- 
pline of their own days they should not be neglected ; 
but neither should there be assigned to them that 
high place in deciding controversy to which the 
young traveller would advance them. Independently 
of the reasons for which plain good sense would deny 
them such authority, the ecclesiastical writers of pri- 
mitive times furnish, themselves, a warning against 
placing implicit credit in them. The Irish gentleman 
should have been instructed by it. 



32 



GUIDE TO AN 



When all the leaders of the Greeks had concurred 
in the recommendation of one individual as worthy 
to be second in command, no further evidence was 
required, that the general voice was in favor of his 
being first. This is a very imperfect illustration of 
the authority with which, it might be said, in every 
age, all concurrent christian testimony would compel 
a reverent submission to the scripture. Not only 
is the book of God's word acknowledged to be of 
highest worth, but it is set so eminently beyond all 
human productions, as to have no second. It is sin- 
gular that the praises of scripture, and the directions 
to be guided by it with which the Fathers abound, 
did not remind the traveller that he was misemploy- 
ing his faculties while devoting them to the study of 
writings at best the production of human wisdom, 
and, in almost all instances, bearing the character of 
human weakness. 

Nor is it alone by their praises of scripture, the 
writers of early christian ages instruct their readers. 
Occasionally they contain testimonies by which, 
more directly, their own merits may be estima- 
ted. I turn from a chapter in " the Travels," in 
which doctrines are recommended by the authority 
of Tertullian, and Cyprian, and Lactantius, and Je- 
rome, and other names, and I look to one, perhaps 
the most honoured of these eminent men, for his 
judgment on his fellows. He had been presented 
by a young author with a discourse which appears 
to have been favoured by his approval, and, in re- 
plying to the letter of presentation, in which the 
advice of the distinguished recluse as to a rule of life 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 33 

was requested, Jerome replied, urging strenuously 
on the young writer, the importance of studying 
scripture. 6 6 With scriptural knowledge as the founda- 
tion, nothing could be more perfect than his works." 
4 6 Tertullian," he writes, " abounds in thought, but 
is unhappy in expression. Blessed Cyprian flows 
along like a clear smooth stream, but, occupied in 
the advancement of the virtues or because of the 
emergencies of persecution, has not discoursed of 
the scriptures. Victorinus crowned with martyrdom 
cannot fully express what he knows. Lactantius, 
a flood of Ciceronean eloquence, Oh, that he had 
power to confirm what is ours, as he has overthrown 
what is opposed to us. Arnobius, subject to ine- 
quality and excess, is confused, not observing due 
distinction in his work. Saintly Hilary, high raised 
in the Gallic buskin, and, adorned with Grecian 
flowers, is involved in his periods and unsuited to the 
comprehension of the more simple. I am silent of 
others dead and living, of whom posterity shall 
judge." * Such is the opinion of Jerome, regarding 
the most eminent writers of his own and of preced- 
ing ages : surely it is not wise to ascribe to the 
copies of books at this day bearing their names, and 
liable to the imputations which exposure to the acci- 
dents and frauds of sixteen centuries should draw 
down upon them, a higher authority than could be 
justified by the character given by one thoroughly 
competent to pronounce a sound judgment, and 

* Epist. ad Paulinum. 

D 



34 



GUIDE TO AN 



having before him works of whose genuineness and 
authority there could be no suspicion.* 

It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that 
the compositions of uninspired men were far more 

* The mutilations and changes made in the works of the 
Fathers, by " Congregations of the Index," furnish additional 
reason for distrust of their authority. The circumstances brought 
to light by Archbishop Wake, respecting the suppressed epistle 
of Chrysostome to Csesarius are full of instruction on this sub- 
ject. It was quoted by Peter Martyr, in the controversies of the 
sixteenth century. Gardiner and others, unable to resist the 
argument it contained against transubstantiation, endeavoured 
to shift its authorship to another, John Bishop of Constantinople, 
who lived in the sixth century. This only made matters worse 
by showing that up to so late a period, the doctrine had not 
been received, and Cardinal de Perron boldly attempted to cut 
the knot by pronouncing Martyr's quotation a forgery. For a 
length of time the cardinal's expedient was successful ; but, in 
the end, a Roman Catholic, Bigotius, having found the ma- 
nuscript in the Florentine library, and ascertained its genu- 
ineness and authenticity, gave it, or rather attempted to give 
it, to the public, accompanied by an observation on the ob- 
noxious passage which had not the effect of neutralizing its 
argument, or of propitiating the doctors of the Sorbonne. 
They actually cut out of the printed copy of the work the 
epistle and the comments on it ; Bigotius, however, had pre- 
served some copies from their pious spoliation, and Archbishop 
Wake became the possessor of the subtracted leaves, and ap- 
peals to the edition of Palladius, published by Bigotius, in the 
year 1680, to prove the truth of his allegations. 

It would appear more extraordinary than it does, to find 
a writer, not a professed Protestant, establishing the authority of 
an epistle decisive against transubstantiation, if there were not 
abundant proof, that many, in apparent communion with the 
Church of Rome, are very uneasy in their fetters. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 35 

likely to be adulterated than the Holy Scriptures. 
Works held in no higher esteem than those which 
Jerome characterized were liable to the hazards of 
accident, or carelessness, or fraud ; but it was the com- 
mon interest of all who believed in the Bible that it 
should not be corrupted. It was the standard of 
faith and morals ; contending sects appealed to it, 
and guarded the purity of its text, and, as copies 
rapidly multiplied and were widely dispersed, it 
soon became vain to attempt any such corruption of 
the scriptures as should be effectual for purposes of 
deceit. But' this is not the place to enumerate 
the assurances we have that the scriptural text has 
been carefully preserved. It needs little enquiry to 
be satisfied, that no books were ever guarded with 
so jealous care, or, even if we consider no more 
than the natural inducements by which man is influ- 
enced, had such ample provision made for their 
preservation. 

The Irish traveller has taken notice of an ad- 
ditional reason why the authority of the Fathers 
should not be very highly respected. It is what he 
calls the " Discipline of the Secret," by which, it ap- 
pears, that, in writing on certain subjects, a studied 
obscurity was recommended. The observance of this 
discipline was not very unlike, if it were not identi- 
cal with, that ceconomical doctrine, according to 
which it was permitted to alloy pure truth, and it 
served to prepare for that toleration of " pious frauds" 
which seemed aptly to fulfil the apostle's prediction of 
" speaking lies in hypocrisy," a practice ruinous in 
its results, and which, even now, disparages the 



36 



GUIDE TO AN 



testimony of those who had not with sufficient deci- 
siveness condemned it.* 

To sum up briefly, the grounds upon which it 
should be accounted unwise, in one not previously 
well prepared, to engage in the exclusive study of 
the Fathers with such a design as the Irish gentleman 
proposed ; it may be said, that the authority of their 
writings could never, under any circumstances, have 
been equal to that of scripture ; that it must be quali- 
fied by the doubts, which accumulate as time ad- 

* The author of the Travels could have derived valuable 
information as to the merits of the Fathers, from the Edinburgh 
Review, a periodical with which he appears, by his citations, to 
be familiarly acquainted. The number for November, 1814, 
contains an article on Mr. Boyd's " Translation of select pas- 
sages" which will well repay perusal, and in which the severest 
and most vehement animadversions on " the Christian Heathen- 
ism and Heathen Christianity" of " those primitive doctors of 
the Church," are recommended by all the grace, and spirit, and 
fancy, for which the reputed author is distinguished. " Their 
bigoted rejection," he writes, "of the most obvious truths in 
natural science, the bewildering vibration of their moral doc- 
trines, never resting between the extremes of laxity and rigour, 
their credulity, their inconsistencies of conduct and opinion, 
and, worst of all, their forgeries and falsehoods, have already 
been so often and so ably exposed by divines of all countries, 
religions, and sects, the Dupins, Mosheims, Middletons, Clarkes, 
Jortins, &c. that it seems superfluous to add another line upon 
the subject, though we are not quite sure, that, in the present 
state of Europe, a discussion of the merits of the Fathers is not 
as seasonable and even as fashionable a topic as we could select. 
At a time when the inquisition is re-established by our beloved 
Ferdinand, when the pope again brandishes the keys of Peter 
with an air worthy of a successor of the Hildebrands and 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 37 

vances, with respect to the correctness and authenti- 
city of existing copies of their works ; that they stu- 
died obscurity and practised what they called pious 
frauds ; and that, generally speaking, neither their 
moral or intellectual qualifications were of such an 
order as entitled them to exclusive consideration. 
" If we could flatter ourselves that Mr. Boyd would 
listen to us, we would advise him to betake himself 
as speedily as possible from such writers as his 
Gregories, Cyrils, &c. which can never serve any 

Perettis, &c." If the author of these reflections be a living man, 
and would pronounce judgment on the citations from early 
Fathers in the Travels of an Irish Gentleman, he would not 
perhaps find his censures so fashionable as they were in 1814, 
but he may rely upon their being as strongly called for. 

Again the Reviewer writes : " There were two maxims 
adopted and enforced by many of the Fathers, which deserve to 
be branded with particular reprobation, not only because they 
acted upon them continually themselves, to the disgrace of the 
holy cause in which they were engaged, but because they have 
transmitted their contamination to posterity, and left the features 
of Christianity to this day, disfigured by their taint. The first 
of these maxims, we give it in the words of Mosheim, was, that 
it is an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when, by such means, 
the interests of the Church may be promoted. To this profli- 
gate principle the world owes not only the fables and forgeries 
of these primitive times, but many of those evasions, those corn- 
promises between conscience and expediency which are still 
thought necessary and justifiable for the support of religious 
establishments. So industrious were the churchmen of the 
early ages in the inculcation of this monstrous doctrine, that we 
find the Bishop Heliodorus insinuating it, as a general princi- 
ple of conduct, through the seductive medium of his Romance 
Theaginesand Chariclea." Edinburgh Review , November, 1814. 



38 



GUIDE TO AN 



other purpose than that of a vain parade of cumbrous 
erudition, to studies of a purer and more profitable 
nature, more orthodox in taste as well as in theology. 
He will find in a few pages of Barrow or Taylor, 
more rational piety and more true eloquence than in 
all the Fathers of the Church together." Although 
the Roman Catholic reader may not agree in the 
praise of Barrow or Taylor, and many of every Church 
will insist, that the works of the Fathers are under- 
rated, yet it would have been desirable that the Irish 
traveller, who appears acquainted with the philoso- 
phy of the Edinburgh Review, had read or remem- 
bered the above passage and the article in which 
it is contained. It might have protected him from 
perils still more enormous than that which the gifted 
reviewer bravely and happily encountered, in " pois- 
ing down his huge folio saints from their shelves." 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



39 



CHAPTER IV. 

Testimony — Councils — Creeds — Liturgies — Fathers — 
Ignatius — Justin Martyr. 

When Protestants refer to the judgment of the early 
ages of the Church as important in the determination 
of controversy, they by no means propose to have 
questions decided by the testimony of individuals. 
Had our traveller enquired of the academic preacher 
the meaning of his words he would have been thus 
instructed. Had he consulted the venerable guide 

of his early childhood, the Rev. Father O , he 

would have received a similar answer, and have 
found, that the Fathers whose works he so earnestly 
studied, and by whose testimonies he appears so se- 
riously impressed, were to be ranked as authorities 
not only, in subordination to the Scriptures, but that 
there were beside, certainly two, probably three, 
species of evidence to which more credit was to be 
attached, — namely, councils, creeds, and (perhaps 
there may be added,) Liturgies in use among the 
early Christians. Hereafter we shall enquire what 
these more creditable witnesses testify. They are 
now noticed for the purpose of reminding the reader, 



40 



GUIDE TO AN 



that the sources, from which the Irish Gentleman 
wished to procure a knowledge of religion, were the 
least reputable of all to which he could have had 
access. The task is not the most agreeable, but it 
may not, perhaps, be unattended by good, to exa- 
mine the principal witnesses consulted for his instruc- 
tion, and ascertain, if practicable, the precise mean- 
ing of their allegations. 

We regard as most important the testimony offered 
on the subject of the eucharist, because of the ad- 
ventitious value attached to it. If transubstantiation 
be not acknowledged, the doctrine of a Trinity can- 
not be maintained, the same writers having, un- 
der similar difficulties, and with the same caution 
and delicacy, expounded and defended both. By 
such a terror the young traveller appears to have 
been continually haunted. Either he must renounce 
Christianity or he must embrace transubstantiation. 
There is comfort in thinking that a frightful vision 
like this, in which the living and the dead are chained 
together, and the Holy One sees corruption, appears 
only in the absence of Scripture. Let us enquire 
whether, after a little reflection, the phantom will re- 
main, even among the ruins and obscurity where it 
is said to have its dwelling. 

The young traveller seems positive, that the first, 
the apostolical fathers, in very distinct terms, favored 
the doctrine of transubstantiation ; that, in process of 
time, the language of their successors became more 
obscure, as they felt it more necessary to guard their 
awful rites from profanation ; and that, subsequently, 
secresy was discontinued, and the doctrine of the 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



41 



eucharist, as declared in the Church of Rome, openly 
and fully avowed. It is of moment, therefore, to 
examine with some degree of care the passages in 
which, it is intimated, the most unreserved writers 
of the early ages testify their belief in transubstan- 
tiation. 

We commence with Ignatius, who, in a sentence 
already quoted, accuses certain heretics of absenting 
themselves from the eucharist because they would 
not acknowledge it to " be the flesh of Christ, that 
flesh which suffered for our sins."* We have seen 
a partial representation of the argument founded 
on these words. It is necessary that the passage and 
the reasoning to which it has given occasion be more 
fully examined. 

There were certain heretics, as " The Travels" 
remind us, who were of opinion that our Lord Christ 
had not a real body and had not, of course, been sub- 
jected to a real death. Against their errors Ignatius 
strongly warned the orthodox Christians, and with 
peculiar force and vehemence in the epistle to the 
Smvrnaeans, in which their abstinence from the eu- 
charist is censured. I need not remind the reader, 
that such abstinence could have no weight in decid- 
ing whether the sacrament were, in figure or in sub- 
stance, the very body of Christ. The Docetae were 
as likely to refrain from commemorating as from 

* There are two copies of the Epistle of Ignatius to the 
Romans, in one of which the above passage is not contained. 
Both are edited by Cotelerius. The weight of testimony both 
Protestant and Roman Catholic, seems in favor of retaining the 
passage, although its genuineness is much doubted, 



42 



GUIDE TO AN 



acknowledging the death and passion of the Lord ; 
and, accordingly, it must be accounted rash to affirm, 
that if the eucharist were no more than a figurative 
representation of what the Church of Rome pro- 
nounces it actually to be, the heretics would not 
abstain from it. The argument, therefore, the only 
one of consequence, must be of a different kind. The 
declaration of Ignatius respecting the Docetse, con- 
tains, by inference, a profession of his own belief. 
They abstained from the eucharist and prayer, 
because they confessed not the eucharist to be the 
flesh of Christ. Inasmuch as he did not abstain, 
he is to be regarded as one who made the suitable 
confession. 

The amount of the argument, from the expressions 
of the martyr, is, that he and the orthodox of his 
days confessed the eucharist to be the flesh of Christ 
which suffered for their sins. A flippant controver- 
sialist would perhaps demand what more is necessary 
to establish full conformity between Ignatius and the 
council of Trent — the eucharist of his days and 
modern transubstantiation ? A moment's reflection 
would warn him not to be so precipitate. Under- 
stood in the sense in which he receives it, the con- 
fession of the martyr is very different indeed from 
the decrees and declarations of more recent times. 
He confesses the eucharist to be the flesh of Christ 
which suffered for our sins. What was this flesh ? 
According to ordinary belief man consists of two 
parts, body and spirit, the one solid, visible and 
palpable to touch, the other invisible, and not hav- 
ing solidity. A similar distinction is made, in the 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



43 



doctrine of the Church of Rome, as to the com- 
ponent parts of body or flesh. It is supposed to con- 
sist of two parts, the one apprehended by sight and 
touch, the other of a nature which our senses cannot 
discern ; the one being the discovery, if not the crea- 
ture, of recondite and subtle philosophy, the other 
that of which all men have satisfactory evidence, 
and to which they have assigned the name. 

The reader may, by experiment, speedily ascertain 
what it is to which he assigns the name of flesh 
or body. I mean by experiment on his own mind. 
When such a term is employed, what image or idea 
does it suggest ? Is flesh something that cannot be 
seen or touched, something which cannot occupy 
space. This is not the notion which plain men 
have adopted, nor is it encouraged by either the 
Church of Rome or the Scripture. When our 
blessed Lord would convince his agitated disciples, 
that he had flesh and blood, what is his proof, " Be- 
hold my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself, han- 
dle me and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones 
-as ye see me have."* They must have understood 
by the words flesh and bones something which could 
be seen and touched ; else they would not have ad- 
mitted the criterion of sense in distinguishing between 
body and spirit. The principle suggested here is 
more plainly asserted in an Abridgment of Christian 
Doctrine, designed for the instruction of Roman 
Catholic children. " If God be every where, why 
do we not see him? Because he is a pure spirit."f 



■ St. Luke, xxiv. 39. f Abridgment of Christ. Doct. 



44 



GUIDE TO AN 



Thus, in the words of our Lord, we learn that to 
have flesh is to have something which can be touched 
and seen ; and, from the passage in the Roman Ca- 
tholic Catechism, it would not be unreasonable to 
infer, that to exist and not to be the object of sense — 
is to have a purely spiritual being. 

If Ignatius, then, confessing that the eucharist 
was the flesh of Christ, wrote, as champions of the 
Church of Rome insist, in the plain literal import of 
the words, he wrote of a flesh which could be seen 
and touched, he wrote of all which the word flesh 
comprehends, not alone of that spiritualized nature 
to which the name " substance" has been philoso- 
phically given, but also of those palpable qualities 
which are solid and visible, and from which, the com- 
mon sense of mankind cannot well understand why 
the philosophical name should be withheld. 4 6 The 
pastors of the church should teach that the body of 
the Lord 6 6 is not in the sacrament as in a place, 
for place belongs to those things that have magni- 
tude." * The sacramental body has no magnitude, 
does not occupy place. Surely, then, it cannot be 
properly signified by a word which, literally, denotes 
an object to which place and magnitude are essential. 
Could such flesh, in the words of Ignatius, have 
suffered for our sins ? The flesh which was upon 
the cross had magnitude, occupied place, was sensi- 
ble, visible : if the same term may be applied to 
something separated from all those outward marks 
to which the name was originally given, (at least be- 



* Cat. Con. Trid. Dublin Edition, p. 186. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



45 



cause of which* it was given,) and the language 
I be still accounted literal and correct, why may not 
the name with equal justice be applied to " spirit." 
i Properly speaking " body," at least " flesh," signifies 
something having qualities in which it is cognizable 
to our senses. It is argued, that it may be employed 
with equal propriety to designate what, if not a pure 
abstraction of the judgment, has certainly nothing 
for the sense to discover ; what, in truth, is much 
more closely connected with spirit than with body, 
participating in the negative attributes of the former, 
and having neither the positive or negative affections 
of the latter; if, therefore, the literal construction 
of language allowed the same word to signify visible 
and invisible, solid and unsolid, passive and impas- 
sive, extended and unextended being, surely it is 
little to add, that it may also signify both body and 
spirit, and thus may enable us to recognize, in the 
expression of Ignatius, in the decrees of Trent, and 
the articles of the Church of England, the same 
doctrine — of a real, spiritual presence. 

The reader, however, should not forget, that 
the great point at issue between the Church of Rome 
and the Reformers, so far as the doctrine of transub- 
stantiation is concerned, is, whether certain words 
are to be understood in a literal or in a figurative 
and spiritual acceptation ; nor should he think it im- 
pertinent to the occasion, to institute a brief enquiry 

* The fact of there being but one name for the " substance" 
of every kind of body, seems to show the principle on which 
names have been given. 



46 



GUIDE TO AN 



into the sense in which the confession of Ignatius is 
to be received. When he, by inference, acknow- 
ledged that the eucharist was the flesh which suffered 
for our sins, did he speak literally, or did he use the 
words in the same sense in which, of the victim, it 
was said, this is the Lord's Passover, to imply that 
it represented or figured what it was said to be. 

The passage in which the words under examination 
are found, must be quoted more at length than they 
are recited in " the Travels." " Let no man be 
deceived. Both heavenly things, and the glory of 
angels and princes visible and invisible, if they be- 
lieve not in the blood of Christ it shall be judgment to 
them. He that is able to receive, let him receive. 
Let place make no man proud, for faith and love are 
all, before which nothing is preferred. But consider 
those who are heterodox as to the grace of Jesus 
Christ which has come to us, how they oppose the 
will" (or purpose) " of God. Of love they have 
no care, neither of the widow nor the orphan, nor 
of the afflicted, of bond or free, nor of the hungry 
or the thirsty. They abstain from eucharist and 
prayer because they acknowledge not the eucharist 
to be the flesh of our Saviour Christ which suffered 
for our sins." Here it is contended, that faith and 
charity are the great principles which it is essential 
to cultivate and exercise. The faith must be, not 
like the opinion of the heretics, belief in a Saviour 
whose humanity was a phantom. It must be faith 
in the blood of Christ, who, as it is declared at the 
commencement of the epistle " was truly crucified 
by Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, being 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



47 



nailed for us in the flesh to the cross," ' 6 not as some 
unbelievers say that he only seemed to suffer. For 
after his resurrection I know and believe that he was 
in the flesh."* " And when he came to those who were 
with Peter, he said unto them, Take, handle me, 
and see that I am not an incorporeal daemon. And 
straightway they felt him and believed" " But after 
the resurrection, he did eat and drink with them as 
he was in the flesh, although, as to his spirit, he was 
united to his Father." The flesh in which Christ 
appeared after death, endured the test of sight and 
touch. The apostles believed when they had seen and 
felt that the Lord had a body. Any such flesh as 
transubstantiation presupposes, would not have con- 
vinced the disciples — any definition which implied 
that the flesh of the Lord was of such a nature, 
Ignatius would have accounted an invention of the 
heretics against whose errors he was expostulating. 
Thus far, therefore, it is evident, that the word 
flesh, in the sense in which the martyr employed it, 
is to be received in the plain signification in which it 
is ordinarily used. Did he confess that this flesh 
was in the eucharist ? A little patience will enable 
the reader fully to understand. 

In the epistle to the Smyrnaeans, from which the 
confession is quoted, there is a brief outline of what 
is most important in the history of our Lord. His 
birth — his baptism — his death and passion — his re- 
surrection, and the proofs afforded to the disciples 



* Ylyu yko %y\ /xircc T7\v Kvoierraffiv iv tragxi ccvrov oH%cc 



48 



GUIDE TO AN 



that he had a real body, are clearly and expressly re- 
lated ; but, unless the passage which the Traveller has 
alleged be regarded as such, there is not added to 
the recital of what our Savour did, that he gave him- 
self in the eucharist. Yet this, if the faith of Igna- 
tius confessed it, he should not have omitted. He 
writes, that Christ ate and drank with his Disciples ; 
he would scarcely have omitted, had he so believed, 
that he was their food no less than their companion. 
There was, however, another occasion on which an 
omission, such as this, was still more remarkable. 
In his epistle to the Philadelphians, Ignatius in- 
stitutes a comparison for the purpose of setting forth 
the superiority of the Gospel over the law, and con- 
cludes thus — " The Gospel has something which 
surpasses — the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, his 
passion, and resurrection."* Was it likely, if he 
believed the eucharist to be that which the Church 



of Rome holds it, that he would have omitted so 
stupendous a marvel in his enumeration of those 
graces which distinguished the Gospel ? According 
to the Council of Trent, our blessed Lord appeared, 
suffered, arose from the dead, and offered himself 
as food to his Disciples, in the body ; and the martyr 
Ignatius, when recounting the great things by which 
the Gospel excels preceding dispensations, names 
three of these appearances, and is silent as to the 
most wonderful of all. No unprejudiced reasoner 
will deny, that the silence is remarkable. 

It should be observed, that, throughout the epis- 




* Igna. Epist. ad Phila. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



49 



ties of Ignatius, there is no passage which could 
afford the slightest grounds for attributing to him a 
direct recognition of that doctrine which, in the pas- 
sage quoted by the traveller, he is supposed inciden- 
tally and indirectly, to have noticed. He uses upon 
one or two occasions, such words as the " bread of 
God," " the flesh of Christ," but never under cir- 
cumstances which could countenance the supposition 
that the terms are literal, or at all favour the notion, 
that his judgment was in accordance with the Church 
of Rome ; and, upon one occasion, he uses figurative 
language of this kind in such a manner as not only to 
discredit all such inferences as our traveller has 
drawn, but to confirm the rational interpretation of 
Protestants by the decisive authority of the writer s 
own example. 

In an epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians,* in which 
he very earnestly recommends unity in discipline 
and doctrine, conjuring the people to preserve the 
close and affectionate connection which should sub- 
sist between them and their bishops, priests, and 
deacons, he strenuously exhorts them, \ ' putting on 
meekness," to renew themselves in " faith, ivhich is 
the body of Christ, and in charity, which is his blood" 
The eloquence with which the martyr constantly 
magnifies the importance of these virtues, and the 
variety of aspects in which he exhibits them, cannot 
fail to interest all Christian readers. His doctrine is 
thus simply declared in the epistle to the Ephe- 
sians: " For the beginning is faith — the end chanty. 



* Ig, Ep. ad Tral. Cot. 

E 



50 



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These two, joined together, are of God, and all 
other things which concern a holy life are their conse- 
quences."* Let the reader bear in mind the mean- 
ing and spirit of this sentence and he will scarcely 
deny, that, not only is it impossible to ascribe a 
literal interpretation to the expression in which men- 
tion of the eucharist is made, but that, by a figurative 
only, can the sense of the entire passage be under- 
stood. Ignatius is warning the Smyrnaeans to be stead- 
fast in faith and charity, and to be guarded against 
the devices of heretics, who disregard both, showing 
themselves indifferent to the wants of the brethren, 
and abstaining from the assemblies where the sacra- 
ment of faith and love is administered. They will 
not confess that Christ had a body, or that his blood 
was shed, and, accordingly, they do not attend where 
his body and blood are commemorated, or discharge 
the duties of love which are prescribed by his espe- 
cial command. They have not " faith, which is the 
body of Christ, or charity, which is his blood." 

I do not know that, before the present day, an 
attempt was ever made, to prove, that the expression 
we have been considering should be literally inter- 
preted. The honor of such an attempt was left for 
our young traveller, and his effort seems character- 
ized by the confidence and indiscretion which were 
to be expected in so young a controversialist. The 
abstinence of the Docetae from the eucharist, and 
more especially the reason alleged for it, should be 
regarded as proof that, in their day, a corporeal 



* Ignat. ad Eph. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



presence was the orthodox doctrine ! Otherwise they 
need not have abstained, forasmuch as a eucharist 
like that of Protestants " would in no degree have 
offended their anti-corporeal notions." Had our tra- 

1 veller reflected, he would, perhaps, have formed an 
opinion directly the reverse, and maintained, that 
no artifice could contrive a doctrine better calcu- 
lated to accord with such opinions than that of the 
modern Church of Rome? Could the acceptance 
of the Trent dogma be urged against the Docetae as 

' an inconsistency? Nay, rather, would they not have 
earnestly appealed to it as proof that their notions 
were not extravagant or peculiar ? If, in the eucha- 
rist, the church recognised something which had 
neither form or extension, solidity, weight, or color, 
something which no sense could discern, and which 
was, notwithstanding, to be called " the flesh, which 
suffered for our sins," and to be so called by words 
taken in their literal signification, might not the Do- 
cetee justly retort upon their orthodox opponents, 
allege that all scripture should be submitted to a 
similar process of refinement, and that the phantom 
body with which they would pronounce the Lord 
invested, being of a similar nature with that which 
was acknowledged in the eucharist, should not be 
denied to be that in which he walked while he was 
visible on earth. As the figure of a body, visible 
and palpable to touch, the eucharist rebuked and 
contradicted them ; had it been accounted the reality 
of an unsolid, inseparable, invisible, impassive thing 
denominated body, it had been that which would 
most aptly coincide with their fantastic heresy, and 



52 



GUIDE TO AN 



perhaps supply them with the most cogent arguments 
against the orthodox. 

An expression in the apology of Justin Martyr 
seems to have occasioned the traveller still more dis- 
turbance than the words of Ignatius, and, if that were 
possible, with less reason. " I had but a short way, 
however, descended the stream, when I found my 
sails taken aback by the following passage in Saint 
Justin the martyr." Nor do we take these gifts (in 
the eucharist) as common bread and common drink ; 
but as Jesus Christ our Saviour, made man by the 
word of God, took flesh and blood for our salvation, 
so in the same manner we have been taught that the 
food which has been blessed by prayer, and by which 
our blood and flesh in the change are nourished, is 
the flesh and blood of that Jesus incarnate. " The 
assertion of a real corporeal presence by St. Ignatius, 
had more than sufficiently startled me; but here was 
a still stranger case, a belief in the change of the ele- 
ments, in actual tranmbstantiation ; and this on the 
part of a Saint so illustrious as St. Justin. Verily, 
they who could send a Christian youth to learn 
Protestant doctrine of teachers like these, must plead 
guilty to the charge either of grossly deceiving him 
or being ignorant themselves." 

In this concluding sentiment, I believe all Protes- 
tant readers will sincerely concur, and, as our points 
of agreement are not very numerous, I have thought 
it not unsuitable to recite a sentiment of the young 
traveller, in which I too can most cordially agree. 
Protestants hold, that, in the writings of men, whose 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



53 



thoughts appear frequently in the process of change 
from paganism to the truth, (who can speak of devils 
corrupting men by the doctrine of sacrifice, and of 
God accepting oblations, which else would be given 
over to demons,* who can derive the name of Chris- 
tian, from the divine oil with which the athlete of 
God is anointed, f who can discuss as matters of im- 
portance, and decide most erroneously, the thousand 
frivolous and superstitious questions with which their 
works abound,) although essential truth may be tes- 
tified, yet the best instruction is not, in the safest 
form afforded. Accordingly, they direct to a testi- 
mony in which there is no error. How desirable 
that their conduct in this respect should be imitated. 
Perhaps, if the young traveller, or other enqui- 
rers of influence, could satisfy the divines who have 
most authority in their communion, that the Fathers, 
amidst all their errors, have none which countenance 
the great peculiarities of the Church of Rome, we 
should find these writers soon ranked in their proper 
place, and receiving that qualified respect which all 
Christian scholars are willing to pay them. 

Let it be understood, then, that Protestant teachers 
do not send the youth of their persuasion to receive 
instruction from " the Fathers," — the bible alone is 
the religion of Protestants ; but, they feel it a mercy 
for which they are bounden to give thanks, that, in 
those writings to which Rome appeals for proofs that 
her doctrines were held in the early ages of the 
Church, no confirmation of her peculiar tenets can 



* Justin Martyr. 



f Theoph. ad Ant. 1. 1. 



54 



GUIDE TO AN 



be discovered; and, while they set little value upon 
any testimony of faith which the word of God does 
not afford, they can yet weigh the evidences which 
adversaries adduce from other sources, and prove 
them to be inconclusive. 

Justin Martyr, according to the interpretation set 
upon his words by the " Irish Gentleman/' bore 
witness to the doctrine of transubstantiation, inas- 
much as he spoke of the bread and wine undergoing a 
change. Did the young enquirer notice what was the 
effect of the change? " Of which, by change, our 
flesh and blood are nourished." * A change evidently 
into the substance of the communicant's body, 
agreeable to the doctrine of the Church of England, 
and most repugnant to transubstantiation. 

But the bread and wine was taught not to sig- 
nify, but to be the flesh and blood of Christ. No 
doubt, such is the force of the words, if they are 
to be literally understood. Why should they not ? 
Because their author has taught us to interpret them 
as a figure. This will soon appear. In describing 
the religious worship on the Lord's day, the apologist 
writes, that the services concluded with what we 
should call the communion, in which the bread and 
wine having been blessed, the element, which is called 
eucharist, is distributed to the Christians present, 
and sent to the absent. " None," he says, " are ad- 
mitted to partake of it but those who have been 

* That the above is the correct translation, will not for a 
moment be disputed. In the original the passage is as follows : 
" E| %0 aifAa k) ffoi(>xiff Kara fti<rce,£oX'/)v vgkQovrat hfAuv" 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



55 



baptized, who believe in Christ, and live after his 
commandments, for the gifts are not " common bread 
and common drink," &c. They are still bread and 
wine, though not common, or for ordinary use. 
They are changed into the body and blood of the 
communicants, and they are also the body and blood 
of Christ. It cannot be disputed that, if the passage be 
literally understood, the same aliment " by change," 
nourishes the human body, and is declared also to be 
the body of the Lord. It is not said, that the eucharist 
contains, or conveys that blessed body. It was the 
food which, by change, nourished the communicants, 
which was taught to be the body of Christ. But, as 
the catechism of the Council of Trent instructs us, 
" Christ is neither begotten anew nor changed;* 
and again, more pertinently to the present occasion, 
" This sacrament is not changed into us as the 
bread and wine is."f Thus, as the Church of Rome 
affirms, what is changed into the human substance is 
not the body of the Lord; — but that which Justin calls 
the sacred body, is a substance by which he informs 
us, our flesh and blood are nourished. If his words 
were to be taken literally, they would not only out- 
rage common sense and religious feeling, but also, 
directly contradict the doctrine which the Irish Gen- 
tleman would deduce from them. 

It would be wise in Roman Catholic controver- 
sialists, to reflect on the consequences which must 
follow from insisting, so pertinaciously as they fre- 
quently do, on rejecting all interpretations which are 



* Cat. Trent, p. 185. 



f Ibid. 188. 



56 



GUIDE TO AN 



not exactly literal ; at least, until they had enquired 
whether the sense in which they themselves receive 
a passage, has not as much of figure as that which 
they condemn. Understood in what, but for con- 
troversial disputation, would be regarded as its 
obvious meaning, the words of Justin Martyr are 
agreeable to reason and to their context ; taken in 
the letter, they not only offend the moral sense and 
the judgment, but cannot, in the infinite diversity of 
religious sects, find any by whom they would be 
patronized. All would except the body of Christ 
from the substances which were to undergo change, 
and minister corporeal nutrition ; and therefore the 
figurative interpretation (under it may be a variety 
of forms) would obtain all suffrages. 

But, perhaps it will be said, that, although the 
literal sense cannot reasonably be maintained, the 
figurative demands some more decisive authority 
than has been yet adduced in its favour. It may be 
acknowledged, that to regard the eucharist as a type 
of the body which was given for our sins, and the 
blood which was shed for us, is consonant to reason 
and consistent with the martyr's discourse ; — while 
yet, where a doctrine of great moment is said to be 
taught in the passage, we should be very scrupulous in 
endeavouring to ascertain its precise meaning. Have 
we authority for believing, that a figurative inter- 
pretation is most appropriate in the instance now 
before us ? Immediately after the passage which the 
Irish Gentleman has quoted, the martyr proceeds to 
recite how the Christian doctrine of the eucharist 
had been taught : — " For in the commentaries, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



57 



which are called Gospels, the Apostles have delivered 
that Jesus thus commanded them, that having taken 
bread, and given thanks, he said, do this for a 
remembrance of me ; and in like manner, having 
taken the cup, and given thanks, he said, this is 
my blood." Hence the doctrine and discipline 
of the eucharist ; — and, hence, the Scripture which 
Justin recited in order to recommend them, must 
must be the measure of the explanation he would 
authenticate by its testimony. According to the 
Church of Rome, our Lord, on the occasion when 
the blessed sacrament was instituted, performed a 
miracle, greater and more remote from apprehension 
than the creation of the universe ; and he enjoined 
on his Disciples an observance which they could, 
without miraculous aid, continue. He directed 
them to do what they saw him do, ivhich ivas not a 
miracle ; and he intimated to them, that he had 
wrought a stupendous miracle which they had not 
seen him 'perform. This he did not, so far as the 
Scripture testifies, empower them to repeat; that is to 
to say, he did not, in express words, give power, 
to make the bread his body, while he distinctly en- 
joined the observance by which his death was to 
be commemorated. The powers which our Lord be- 
stowed on his disciples when he sent them to prepare 
his way, or to preach his Gospel, he clearly and 
fully enumerated. At the institution of the sacra- 
ment, he conferred the power and imposed the duty 
of continuing the remembrance of him, but the 
power to work the miracle, which he is said to have 
wrought, was not expressly communicated. Justin, 



58 



GUIDE TO AN 



then, in the Scriptures he recited, adduced authority 
for one part of the Romish dogma, and left the other 
unauthenticated ; and, inasmuch as he conceived him- 
self assigning sufficient authority for the entire doc- 
trine, which he taught^ he must be regarded as holding, 
that in declaring the eucharist to be Christ's body, 
his words did not imply a miracle, which, on the part 
of the Christians, he had not claimed power or autho- 
rity to perform. 

Thus, the Scriptural passage whereon the doc- 
trine of the Eucharist was grounded, containing no 
warrant for the Romish dogma, proves, we might 
almost conclude, that Justin was unacquainted with 
what he did not think of defending. The bread, which 
was "for a remembrance of Christ," could, with- 
out any straining of metaphor, be called the body 
which it represented, and the commemoration in 
the martyr's days, and the injunction given by our 
Lord would, in all parts, correspond. We are not 
without abundant proofs, that such metaphors were 
in ordinary use — but a single instance will serve our 
present purpose. We shall take it from Justin himself 
— " The pasch (or paschal lamb) was Christ."* Can 
we doubt that he employed a similar figure in a pas- 
sage which must otherwise be unintelligible ? 

I cannot conclude this part of my subject, without 
noticing how aptly the testimony of the martyr will 
apply to the doctrine of the Church of England. 
The reader may have observed, that he does not say, 



* Jus. Dial, cum Tryph. Cologne, 1686— p. 388. 




IRISH GENTLEMAN. 59 



" The bread, &c. is no longer common," but " we 
do not take,* or receive, these gifts." The gifts are 
bread and wine, but they are received in a manner 
in which they cease to be common. Thus, the 
Church of England, in the prayer of consecra- 
tion — " Grant, that we, receiving these thy crea- 
tures of bread and wine, according to thy Son, our 
Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remem- 
brance of his death and passion, may be partakers of 
his most blessed body and blood." How accurately 
this prayer agrees with the doctrine taught, and the 
discipline observed in Justin's age, will at once 
appear by calling to remembrance his expressions. 
He dissents from the Church of Rome in one most 
important point, namely, as to the change produced 
in what is termed the Lord's body, he coincides 
with the doctrine of the Church of England in that 
particular, in regarding the elements as bread and 
wine, and in not receiving them as common ; and 
when we remember, that he declared the paschal 
lamb to he Christ, and call to mind the definition 
of the Church Catechism that the outward part or 
sign in the sacrament is the bread and wine, and the 
inward part or thing signified, the body and blood 
of Christ, we can scarcely hesitate to affirm that in 
this particular also, the Church of England and 
the apologist of primitive times hold the same doc- 
trine. 

Further, Justin, in explaining the worship of the 
Christian Sabbath, does not, by a single expression 



60 



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indicate, that adoration was paid to the sacrament. 
Was this to describe the mass?* 

* This is not the only particular in which Justin directly 
opposes the dogma of transubstantiation. The catechism of the 
Council of Trent, p. 186, affirms, that " Because the accidents 
cannot be inherent to the body and blood of Christ, it remains, 
that, beyond all the order and course of nature, they uphold 
themselves without any other thing to support them. This 
has been the perpetual and constant doctrine of the Catholic 
Church," &c. In direct opposition to this perpetual doctrine 
Justin (Expositio Fidei) lays it down as a principle, that 
" accidents subsist not of themselves ;" and on the absurdity, 
so strong is his language, of supposing that they could, grounds 
an argument, which demanded caution and care, and con- 
strained him, had there been any such doctrine known when he 
wrote as the Trent catechism discloses, to modify his expres- 
sions and his reasonings within limits which this doctrine as- 
signed them. There is another passage in Justin's works, in 
which, had he believed in transubstantiation, his belief was 
likely to be made manifest. The 117th Question, in his 
" Quaest." &c. &c, is with reference to our Lord's appearance 
to the Disciples while the doors were closed. The querist, who 
is supposed to be (it should be remembered) an orthodox 
Christian, doubts how that could be a body which was so little 
sensible to the laws of matter. The example on which Justin 
relies in his answer, is that of Christ's walking on the waters, as 
if the one did not more than the other transcend the ordinary 
laws of nature. Had transubstantiation been the orthodox doc- 
trine of his day, it may be doubted whether the question would 
have been proposed ; and it can hardly be doubted, that the 
" real presence" within undisturbed accidents, would not be 
without a notice. The twofold miracle of entering within these 
closed doors of the outward species, and not appearing to human 
eye, would be appealed to, in all probability, as a greater marvel 
than that by whch the orthodox were alarmed. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



61 



CHAPTER V. 

Testimonies unsatisfactory where not fully stated — Augustine's 
Rule of Interpretation — Erasmus — Pascal. 

The Irish Gentleman seems rather to have coasted 
by " the Fathers" than travelled through them, and 
the spoils by which his voyage of discovery has been 
rewarded, convey about as fair a notion of the scenes 
where his wanderings have been, as a hamlet at the 
Land's End would give of the Metropolis of Eng- 
land, or an ingenious foreigner could glean, in his 
brief interview with a custom-house officer, of the 
British Constitution. Had it not been for this uni- 
formity in error, the travels would have been the 
most surprising event of modern times. In the sum- 
mer of the year 1829, the design to enter upon them 
was presented to the mind of the young inquirer, 
and long, it is probable, before the close of 1832 
his vast undertaking was completed. Within that 
interval, he had made himself acquainted with all the 
forms of protestantism, and their respective systems of 
defence and explanation. He had trodden the mazes 
of early heresy without a clue, and returned safely 
to the rational world ; and, above all, with the aid 



62 



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of his lexicon alone, he had completed a progress 
through the Greek and Latin Fathers.* Wonderful, 
indeed ! in the short space of three years, the toils 
of long and learned lives, are not only surpassed, but 
rendered, in comparison with his modern exploits, 
altogether insignificant. What could have been his 
art, or who his conductor ? 

Every reader of " the Travels" may have seen oc- 
casion to observe, that their author has been sin- 
gularly protected against witnessing those proofs of 
Protestant (or, which is the same thing, though, by a 
strange abuse of language, the names are contrasted, 
" Catholic") doctrine with which the early Fathers 
abound. He seems to have worn an inverted cap 
of darkness, which had the effect of obscuring every 
thing but what his conductor, who is also, perhaps, 
his editor, thought it convenient that he should see. 
Making allowances such as this, it is easy to under- 
stand how the toil of travel could be abridged. Ex- 
punge from the Fathers all that favors Protestant- 
ism — all that condemns the Church of Rome — and 
there will be nothing marvellous in the task of reading 
what shall remain, in a much shorter space of time 
than our young student devoted to his antiquarian 
researches. 

A supposition more germaine to the matter we are 
forbidden to entertain. Many an inquirer into the 
doctrines of primitive times has been contented or 
compelled to limit his researches within bounds 
traced out by the advocate and expositor of some 



* Travels, Vol. I. p. 12. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



63 



; modern system; but our Traveller was not of such. 
He, like the Edinburgh Reviewer, was not afraid to 
" poise down the folio saints from their shelves" and 
satisfy himself as to their doctrines and opinions, not 
from reports of those who professed to recite their 
expressions, but from themselves, by candid and am- 
ple examination. And yet, through some strange 
fatality, the selection he has made of passages from 
ancient writers, so closely resembles those which 
professional controversialists have, repeatedly, pub- 
lished, as to call for the same censure which has 
often been passed on their ostentatious and unsatis- 
factory compilations. 

A custom very much to be deprecated prevails, 
unhappily, among many who profess themselves de- 
fenders of what they term religious truth. They 
quote a detached expression or an unfinished sen- 
tence, and are not ashamed to offer it as the delibe- 
rate testimony of the individual whose name they 
have affixed to it. This is rather to play the eaves- 
dropper than to report fairly. You read over the 
pages of an author whose opinion you can learn by 
a comparison of various passages in which he has 
directly spoken on the subject of your enquiry, but 
you find in some unguarded moment that he has 
been betrayed into an inconsistency, and you repeat, 
as his deliberate conviction, a sentence which has 
accidentally escaped him, or which you have extorted 
from him " by the torture." Who has not condemned 
practices thus disengenuous, and complained of the 
uncertainty they have introduced into controversial 
discussion. It is mournful to think that men who 



64 



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make truth their pretext shall resort to artifices of the 
same character as may, consistently, be adopted by 
those who have no object, real or professed, but that 
of personal success ; and it renders the study of po- 
lemic lore, wearisome and disheartening, when it is 
seen to be carried on by atoms of testimony, let 
loose on the one side and on the other, fortuitously 
conflicting, and often, as they are mutually extin- 
guished, leaving scepticism behind them. 

There was one passage, which seemed beyond all 
others, worthy of a place in any collection of ancient 
testimonies, and which, for what reason we are not 
informed, has not been honoured by our travellers 
notice. Indeed, considering the authority ascribed 
to its author's opinion, the nature of the subject to 
which it was applicable, the circumstances under 
which was delivered, its notoriety, and the une- 
quivocal exactness of the language in which it ^s 
expressed, the silence in which our traveller passed 
it by would be more intelligible in one, whose 
Romanism, (like the great house of Douglas,) was 
seen only in that maturity of attachment to his 
Church which forgets early difficulties and embar- 
rassments. The author of the passage I am about 
to recite is St. Augustine, and the subject to which 
it is applied, is a controversy, in which the main 
(perhaps we might add only) question is, whether 
certain words are to be understood in their literal or 
in a figurative acceptation. It is as follows : "If the 
speech be a precept forbidding some heinous wicked- 
ness, or commanding to do good, it is not figurative, 
but if it seem to command a crime, or to forbid that 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



which is profitable, it is. For example, " except ye 
eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, 
ye have no life in you — " this seems to command a 
crime ; therefore it is figurative , commanding us to 
communicate in the passion of our Lord, and with 
delight and profit to lay up in our memories, that his 
flesh was crucified and wounded for our sakes."* 
Will any reflecting man say that one who believed 
in transubstantiation could express this opinion ; or 
will any man, cognisant of the admitted license of 
language, hesitate to acknowledge, that all those tes- 
timonies from Augustine's predecessors and cotempo- 
raries which our traveller has recited, belong to a 
class upon which a general judgment has been pro- 
nounced, in the rule of interpretation which declares 
our blessed Saviour's precept figurative. 

It is not from any want of counter-testimonies, 
I forbear to insert here a long list of passages ex- 
extracted from writings in which, " The Travels" 
would have us imagine, transubstantiation has found 
favor. The reader, who loves such lore, may find 
in the appendix to this volume, citations to his pur- 
pose. Here I have thought it more advisable to 
copy the rule which has been laid down by an au- 
thority not to be (by Roman Catholics at least) 
resisted. This may assist in the discovery of truth ; 
the warfare of quotations gendereth a strife in which, 
commonly, the great interests of the cause are for- 
gotten. 

But, in a controversy, in which, confessedly, the 
* Aug. de Doct. Chris. Lib. 3, C. 16. 

F 



66 



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decision of the question, how have certain words been 
spoken — is all important; it cannot be thought im- 
pertinent to the occasion to show the extreme license 
in which the Church of Rome has indulged herself, 
for the declared purpose of exciting and spreading 
abroad a spirit of devotion. The Church of Eng- 
land affirms that our Lord spoke, in a figurative and 
spiritual sense, words, upon which, literally under- 
stood, a certain doctrine has been grounded. To 
show the propriety of the literal sense, advocates of 
this doctrine adduce, from the works of ancient 
writers, expressions which, their adversaries reply, 
must have, themselves, a figurative interpretation. 
In deciding between arguments thus contradictory, 
it is very important to have the assistance of testi- 
mony, such as that by which Augustine causes us to 
understand the prevailing opinion of the days when 
his light was not extinguished ; nor can it be ac- 
counted other than a happy provision, if living proof 
can be adduced, that, even at the present day, the 
Church of Rome allows herself a latitude of expres- 
sion and interpretation in matters of the very highest 
moment, such as should render her advocates ex- 
ceedingly temperate and cautious in the comments 
wherein they assume the belief of ancient authors. 

There certainly is no term of which a more pre- 
cise and careful use is demanded than the word 
" Adoration ;" and yet, among the formalities of 
the Church of Rome, " the Adoration of the Cross" 
is enumerated. It is one of the ceremonies which 
take place on Good Friday, and the votary, in direct 
terms, pronounces words, by which, were they re- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



67 



i ceived in their literal acceptation, an act of gross ido- 
latry is committed. We have, however, an authentic 
explanation of the sense in which the terms are used, 
and a direct denial that idolatry is intended.* It is 
to be remembered, that for the use of these words, 
the ordinary excuses cannot be pleaded. They were 

! not struck out in the enthusiasm of eloquence, nor 

. were they adopted in an emergency, because of po- 
verty of language. They were the deliberate choice 

! of the guardians of the Church of Rome, in a pru- 

* A learned bishop, the most Reverend Doctor Murray, thus 
explained " the Adoration of the Cross" for the instruction of a 
Committee of the House of Commons in the year 1825: — 
" There has been for many centuries a ceremony practised in 
! the Catholic Church on Good Friday, which is called * the 
i Adoration of the Cross,' a term which expresses the relative 
honor which is paid on that day to the symbol of our redemp- 
tion ; merely a relative honor, which does not terminate with the 
image ; but is referred to the great object whom the image re- 
presents." 

A passage from Theodoret has been frequently adduced 
by Protestants, to prove, that the substance of the elements 
remains after consecration. The meaning of the passage is too 

; clear to admit of dispute, and it is too well known to justify 
insertion here ; but a term is employed in it, which one class of 
reasoners translate as " revere," Roman Catholics (whose bold- 

, ness is least tempered by caution 5 ) " adore," a word which seems 
to denote an idea very different indeed from that which the 
Greek zrgoffxvvurat signifies. If Doctor Murray's version of 
" adoration" had been remembered, Roman Catholics would not 

i have urged, as a point in their favor, Theodoret's supposed ap- 
plication of the term, or Protestants would have convinced them 
that it did not affect the argument. 



68 



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dent spirit, looking before and after, to the propriety 
of the expression, and its probable consequences. 
The ceremony, to which so perilous a name was 
given, is designed to animate devotion, and the 
name is continued, notwithstanding all motives to 
change it, because it is held conducive to the same 
purpose. How can advocates of Romish doctrine 
require of Protestants to receive their explanation, 
and expect that it shall be confined to their own im- 
mediate difficulty. What rule or reason do they 
produce why a doctor of the Church, in the retire- 
ment of his study, having, at his command, all the 
assistance that the combined talent and learning of 
his order can supply, shall select the very worst word 
which language can afford to express his meaning, 
and, rather than alter, shall cover its grossness by 
an arbitrary interpretation ; and, if an orator of an- 
cient times, eager to animate or subdue his audi- 
ence, labouring under the difficulty of expression, 
which high thought and strong emotion have caused 
every speaker to experience, has passed the very 
delicate line which separates justice from exagge- 
ration, why he shall be chained down to the precise 
term he may have used, and not permitted, by par- 
allel passages in his own discourses, to explain his 
meaning ? 

The expressions in which the Sacrament of the 
Lord's supper is declared to be a sign or symbol of 
a sacrificial offering, were too numerous to have 
passed unobserved, and too distinct to admit of mis- 
interpretation. Accordingly, a method has been 
devised to evade the argument they advanced, by 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



69 



which our Traveller appears to have been led astray. 
It is this ; the sacrament is both a figure and a reality 
of the same thing, itself and the figure of itself ; cer- 
tainly it has not lost its shadow. "In a certain sense, 
and as far as it does not affect or qualify the belief in 
a real presence, the Catholic may, with perfect con- 
sistency, apply the words figure or symbol to the 
eucharist, seeing that every sacrament as such, must 
be an outward sign, and, consequently, a figure or 
symbol. In this sense it is that Pascal understands 
the terms in question, used by the Father; and 
as the view taken by so great a man of an article of 
faith so disputed, cannot but be interesting, I shall 
here transcribe his own characteristically clear words : 
" Nous croyons que la substance du pain etant 
changee en celle du corps de notre Seigneur Jesus 
Christ, il est present reellement au* Saint Sacre- 
ment. Voila une des verites. Une autre est que ce 
sacrement est aussi une figure de la croix & de la 
gloire, & une commemoration des deux. Voila la 
foi Catholique, qui comprend ces deux verites qui 
semblent opposees." In fine, Pascal concludes with 
respect to the opponents of his doctrine, that they 
hold the sacrament to be figurative, and so far are 
not heretics, but that they deny the real presence, 
and in this their heresy consists. " Enfin," ils 
nient la presence reelle, & en cela ils sont heretiques.f 
It is very remarkable that, throughout the entire pas- 

* to (not in). The choice of such a preposition is, at least, 
remarkable. 

f Travels, &c. Vol. I. p. 87. 



70 



GUIDE TO AN 



sage, there is nothing which implies Pascal's belief 
in transubstantiation, nor is there a single expression 
from which any degree of ingenuity could deduce a 
plausible inference that Pascal ranked among here- 
sies, the belief in " an outward and visible sign," and, 
" as the inward and spiritual grace," communion 
of the body and blood of Christ. In truth, it is 
only with the doctrine of the Church of England the 
sentiment of Pascal coincides. The sacraments have 
symbols for the senses, real grace for the spirit ; and 
all who bear in mind the simple rule of reasoning, 
that more causes are not to be assigned for any phe- 
nomena than are true and sufficient to account for 
them, will soon become persuaded, that, when the 
Church of Rome admits the sacrament to be a sign or 
figure, she deprives herself of all testimony, that the 
real presence, with which it is blessed and dignified, 
can be other than spiritual. 

May I be permitted here to observe, that it de- 
mands all my reliance on the ingenuousness of the 
author, to believe that he did not purpose to betray 
the cause of which he professed himself a defender. 
If, indeed, it was his object to show that the faith of 
Rome is not what it is commonly considered, or that 
the doctrines which were held in ancient Ireland,* 
are not what are now received by the majority of her 
people, his conduct is intelligible ; but if he were 
really desirous to be esteemed the advocate of tran- 
substantiation, the passages which he has selected 
from Pascal and Erasmus, appear strangely at vari- 



* Travels, Dedication. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



71 



ance with his , professions. That members of the 
Church of Rome believed in her doctrines could add 
nothing to the evidence of her truth, but that they 
should disbelieve, must be considered as very strong 
(if not altogether conclusive) testimony against her. 
Let the reader weigh well our Traveller's citations 
from the works of Pascal and Erasmus, writers whom 
he very highly and most deservedly eulogises, and 
whom he supposes to have testified their faith in the 
manner following : 

" The state of Christians, as Cardinal du Perron, 
in accordance with the opinions of the Fathers, re- 
marks, holds a middle state between the place of the 
Blessed and that of the Jews. The Blessed possess 
Jesus Christ really without figure or veil. The Jews 
possessed of Christ only the figures and the veils ; 
such were the manna and the paschal lamb ; and the 
Christians possess Jesus Christ in the eucharist, 
veritably and really, but still covered with a veil. 
Thus is the eucharist completely suited to the state 
of faith in which we are placed, since it contains 
Christ within it really, but still Christ veiled. Inso- 
much that this state would be destroyed, were 
Christ not really under the species of bread and 
wine, as the heretics pretend, and it would be also 
destroyed, did we receive him unveiled as they do 
in heaven ; seeing that this would be to confound 
our state, in the former case, with that of Judaism, 
in the latter, with that of glory Thus far Pascal, 
The passage from Erasmus is to the same effect. 



* Travels, Vol. 1. p. 144. 



72 



GUIDE TO AN 



" Since the ancients to whom the Church, not with- 
out reason, gives so much authority, are all agreed 
in opinion, that the true substance of the body and 
blood of Jesus is in the Eucharist, since in addition 
to all this, has been added the constant authority of 
the Synods, and so perfect an agreement of the 
Christian world, let us also agree with them in this 
heavenly mystery, and let us receive here below, the 
bread and the chalice of the Lord, in the veil of the 
species, until we eat and drink him without veil in the 
kingdom of God." 

Will any man impute, to either of these eminent 
writers, the monstrous blasphemy, which the above 
words, in italics, literally interpreted, signify; that 
the fiction of Prometheus is to be realised in heaven, 
and that the redeemed of Jesus are the vultures by 
whom he shall be perpetually preyed upon ? No, 
" to eat and drink" in heaven are, confessedly, terms 
denoting that spiritual gladness and refreshment 
which the blessed enjoy in the presence of the Lord 
and Saviour. And how does this differ from the 
participation in the eucharist ? In heaven it is with- 
out veil. In other respects, participation in the 
sacrament, and that which glorified spirits enjoy, are 
the same. As, therefore, the communion enjoyed 
by spirits of just men made perfect is not a fleshly 
banquet, although it is described in terms by which, 
literally understood, that gross and blasphemous 
participation would be implied, neither should so 
offensive an idea be annexed to the same words 
when applied to the sacrament of the Lord's supper ; 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



73 



and, as the distinction marked between the state of 
the Jews and that of the Christians proves, that 
Pascal accounted the eucharist to be more than a 
mere figure, so does his comparison of the Chris- 
tian condition with that of the blessed in heaven 
also prove, that he believed in something very 
different from the doctrine of transubstantiation. 

This great man and the illustrious associate whom 
our traveller assigns him had not indeed cast away 
all the ensigns of an unscriptural Church, but they 
appear to have combated against her most pernici- 
ous doctrines. 

Cauti " clypeos, mentitaque tela 
Agnocunt. atque ora sono discordia signant." 



74 



GUIDE TO AN 



CHAPTER VI. 

Discipline of the Secret — Calumnies against early Christians — 
Impostures of Heretics. 

The cloud of witnesses which, in truth, only darkens 
counsel, when, instead of testimony, they offer no 
more than casual and unguarded expressions, may be 
suffered to pass away. If the reader please to exer- 
cise his judgment, he is furnished with a mean 
whereby he can try every passage in which the Tra- 
veller seems to imagine he has found transubstantia- 
tion, and in which a more experienced observer, 
whether he followed or neglected Augustine's rule, 
whether he received the expressions figuratively or 
in the letter, would find that there was decided vari- 
ance from the decrees of Trent. But there are diffi- 
culties of greater moment. Although " The Travels" 
are, to a considerable extent, made up of those tra- 
ditionary subtleties in which the champions of the 
Church of Rome are careful to prove themselves, 
like their Church, the same yesterday, to day, and 
for ever, the young enquirer, under the influence of 
his temporary Protestantism, had been seduced into 
an exercise of original thought which has shown 
itself in his composition. If he has brought to the 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



75 



field of controversy, the confuted arguments of his 
predecessors, he has at least consulted his own judg- 
ment, and displayed the resources of his own genius 
in the mode of disposing them, and he has created, 
if not the reality, the semblance of difficulties, such 
as challenge to themselves more attention, than, un- 
der less skilful management, his materials of defence 
would have demanded. 

The doctrine of " the secret" serves a double pur- 
pose. It suggests a reasonable excuse for any defi- 
ciencies which may be observed in the proofs offered 
on behalf of transubstantiation, and it is, itself, con- 
verted into a substantive evidence that the doctrine 
is not new. How could greater clearness have been 
expected in the wTitings of men who were so re- 
strained ? Could any dogma, less awful and myste- 
rious than that of the Romish eucharist, have im- 
posed the necessity of such a silence ? 

It is not easy, as our Traveller observes,* to as- 
certain the precise time at which this silence was 
first enjoined or practised, but, it appears, that, 
about the end of the second century, it began to 
be rigidly enforced. Tertullian,f he informs us, was 
the first of the early writers who became, in his 
notices of the great mystery, complex and ambi- 
guous. It was an inauspicious commencement. 
Whether, at the time when his manner changed, 
Tertullian was a heretic, or if disingenuousness was 
the precursor of his errors, we are not instructed. 
We learn no more from the young enquirer, than 



* Travels, Vol. I. p. 96. 



f Ibid. 95. 



76 



GUIDE TO AN" 



that the discipline of the secret was first made of 
consequence by one in whom heresy found a cham- 
pion. Up to his time, there was little concealment 
among Christian teachers, — nor have we been taught 
clearly, to know why it ever became necessary. 
Persecutions from the heathen, persecutions by false 
brethren, persecutions because of calumny had been 
previously endured, and it was not by subtleties or 
concealment they had been mitigated or averted. It 
is not easy to discern what sudden and urgent afflic- 
tion or embarrassment called for a departure from 
the simplicity of former practice ; and the difficulty 
is not lessened by any thing in the temper or the 
character of the individual with whom the secresy is 
said to have originated. 

But the most remarkable circumstance in this 
affair of " the secret," is, that the young Traveller's 
testimonies are almost all gleaned from writers im- 
mediately under its influence. Five apostolic Fathers, 
various eminent Christians lived and wrote before 
those days when the enunciation of doctrine became 
complicated and ambiguous. With the exception of 
two passages, which the reader has already seen, the 
age of candor was unproductive; and no sooner is 
it laid down as a rule, that the doctrine of the eucha- 
rist must not be openly and clearly taught, than there 
is said to be discovered in the manner of disguising it, 
arguments favorable to transubstantiation. Nor is it 
less worthy of remark, that all these testimonies are 
extracted from documents which the necessities of 
the secret should have disparaged ; while, in the 
only memorials wherein information could have been 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



77 



found, it does not appear that the young Traveller 
ever sought assistance or instruction. 

It need scarcely be remarked, that, from the time 
in which it is considered a solemn duty to disguise 
or conceal religious truth, the testimony of all who 
are bound by so unchristian an obligation, ceases to 
be valuable. It is, therefore, of much consequence 
to have a witness to which, (as we turn from imper- 
fect or ambiguous definitions, at best, because of 
the fatal obligation, suspicious and unsatisfactory,) 
we can apply for exact and sufficient information. 
Such a witness God has been pleased to raise up and 
preserve for his people in the scripture. There was 
another witness. A rule of faith had been agreed 
upon by ecclesiastical teachers, embracing the 
great articles which Christian men were bound to 
know and believe. Tertullian recites it, Irenaeus 
recites it, Clement and Ignatius, indeed it might be 
said all the primitive Fathers, bear testimony, in 
some form, to its fulness and truth. It was named 
the Tradition, and was that summary of belief, which, 
even where writing was unknown, barbarous nations 
preserved in their hearts and memories. 

The young Traveller was aware of the existence 
of one of these formularies, and with it, in all its lead- 
ing doctrines, the others coincided. " The Apostles' 
Creed," he writes, " is supposed to have been one 
of the signs of the secret, by which the initiated or 
baptised knew each other, and to have thence derived 
the designation of symbol.* — See Hist, of Apostles' 



* Travels, Vol. L p. 72. 



78 



GUIDE TO AN 



Creed." Here, it might be said, was the ark in 
which doctrine was deposited, and in which it should 
be preserved, so long as the tyranny of the secret 
threw discredit over the more popular writings. 
Here was a document protected by a two-fold secu- 
rity — its concealment from all but the initiated, and 
the precision and brevity successfully studied in its 
compilation. To those who had not scripture it 
communicated all that was necessary to be known, 
and to us who, from a remote period, look back for 
information, it testifies what those doctrines were, 
which were revealed to the initiated, and were 
necessary of all to be believed. When we find this 
document containing not a syllable inapplicable to 
the doctrine and sacraments of the Reformed 
Church,* and when we find it speaking of the 
Lord's ascension into heaven, his sitting at the right 
hand of the Father, from whence he shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead> with a distinctness 
which seems almost tantamount to a warning against 
the doctrine that he should ever again come to be 
offered on the altar, we may not perhaps feel justified 
in complaining that the Irish Gentleman sought his 
information elsewhere, but we may surely feel and 
express regret, that he did not compare the symbol 
which contained truth undisguised, with the writings 
in which he found strong evidences of concealment 
and evasion, and that, at least, he did not instruct 

* It is evident that the words " Communion of Saints" may 
have a spiritual interpretation. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



79 



us, why he preferred the testimony which his enqui- 
ries had taught him to disparage. 

The reader of the Travels must have observed, 
that the principal evidences to the antiquity of tran- 
substantiation have been sought and discovered in 
the works of men, who, as the Irish Gentleman 
informs us, wrote on that subject with studied ambi- 
guity, and that no attempt has been made to remove 
the unfavourable impression produced against them. 
He will remember also, that the only human docu- 
ment which during the rigor of that inauspicious 
discipline, could be looked upon with respect, has 
not been at all regarded by the anxious Traveller, 
and appears to discountenance his opinions. 

But, other evidences have been adduced, of an indi- 
rect and therefore perhaps a more unsuspicious nature. 
While the discipline of the secret prevailed, calumny 
was not silent, or imagination inactive, and the most 
malevolent reports were propagated and believed, 
respecting Christian practises, and banquets of hu- 
man flesh and blood. In these reports, the young 
Traveller hears the testimonies of ignorance and ma- 
lice to the doctrine of the eucharist. He has disco- 
vered, also, that a certain heretic produced the ap- 
pearance of blood flowing into the consecrated cup, 
and concludes that this imposture would never have 
been attempted unless a doctrine like that of the 
Church of Rome had disposed congregations to feel 
its influence. Arguments of this character are wor- 
thy of examination. 

" Still enough, notwithstanding this system of re- 
serve and secrecy had transpired respecting the 



80 



GUIDE TO AN 



Christian doctrine of the eucharist, to set the ima- 
gination and malevolence of unbelievers at work. 
Indistinct notions of dark, forbidden feasts, where it 
was said, flesh and blood were served up to the guests, 
became magnified by the fancies of the credulous, 
into the most monstrous fictions. Stories were told 
and believed of the dreadful rites practised by the 
Christians in their initiations, &c." 4 4 it is not difficult, 
of course, to see through all this disfigurement of 
calumny, the true doctrine of which the profane had 
caught these perverting glimpses."* 

It would have been considerate in the Irish Gen- 
tleman, had he signified to his readers the works 
from which he had gathered his information respect- 
ing the calumnies against the early Christians, and 
the doctrine which gave occasion for them. In truth, 
the works of the Fathers are not like that field which 
persevering industry converted into wealth while seek- 
ing the treasure which it was thought to conceal. 
Much more gladly would one " drink and away" from 
many of these repertories of truth and fable ; and when 
valuable information has been extracted from them, 
it is always matter of especial gratitude if a direction 
also has been given to the very spot from which the 
precious deposit has been extracted. We seldom 
are called upon to thank the young traveller for such 
an accommodation ; but, in his notice of the calum- 
nies directed against the early Church, he leaves us 
altogether dependent on his own epitome for the 
evidence of his assertions. 



* Travels, vol. I. p. 127. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



81 



One calumny noticed by the Traveller, it were 
especially to be desired, he had accompanied by the 
name of some ancient author. It was " of an 
infant covered with paste, being set before the new 
comer, on which he was required to inflict the first 
murderous stab, and then partake of its flesh and 
blood with the rest, as their common pledge of se- 
crecy," * a calumny not deserving of much attention 
for itself, but rendered very important by the com- 
mentary appended to it, namely, that it was a misre- 
presentation of the eucharist. 

The only writer of the primitive times in whose 
works I have found a counterpart for this story of 
the child, is Minucius Felix. In his Octavius, he 
appears to have collected and spoken, in the person 
of an adversary, all the calumnies which had been 
circulated against the Christians ; that they wor- 
shipped the head of an ass, that in their secret 
meetings, offences unutterable were committed, and 
that they became pledged to mutual secrecy by par- 
ticipating in murder. I do not know where the 
comment of the Traveller is to be found. I certainly 
have never been able to discover it in any ancient 
author. Minucius Felix is so far from countenancing 
such an explanation of the slander, that he does not 
appear to have ever heard or known of the doctrine 
which might suggest it. Speaking of the oblations 
which Christians presented he concludes a series of 
antithetical sentences with the expression " he who 
rescues a man from danger slays the best victim" 

* Travels, Vol. 1, p. 128. 

G 



82 



GUIDE TO AN 



These are our sacrifices." His mode of accounting for 
the calumny is, that the Daemons strove by such evil 
reports to preoccupy the Gentiles against a religion 
in which they could be saved. To the same purpose 
Irenasus writes * that an evil being sowed heresies 
in the Church, that all might be defamed by the 
iniquities of false teachers, who could bring a 
reproach on those whom they were unable to lead 
astray. Justin Martyr f points out in his apology 
the necessity of distinguishing between the orthodox 
and the perverted. As, under the common name of 
philosophy, many and discordant sects may be enu- 
merated, so, he writes, in the outward profession of 
Christianity, are to be named many with whose foul 
practises or principles the faithful should not be 
calumniated. The heretics he does not defend 
from the charges which are advanced against the 
whole Christian people.^ Many other writers might 
be named who defended their faith against false ac- 
cusations, but not one, at least so far as I have been 
able to see, who adopted a defence like that which 
the young Traveller has provided.§ Surely it would 

* Iren. Lib. 1, 24. f Apol. 

$ Justin, in express terms, writes, that he knows not whether 
the accusations, respecting cannibal feasts are not justly brought 
against heretics. Apol. 

§ I am confirmed in my opinion that the comment of the 
young Traveller is new, by not finding any justification for it in 
the Annals of Baronius as epitomised by Spondanus. It is 
evident, neither the annalist nor the editor would have suffered 
such a testimony to escape. In a note, Ann. 120. p. 193, vol. 
I. it is said that the eucharist misunderstood might have co-ope- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 83 

iiave been a most natural one had it been available. 
But " the secret" — it did not affect Justin Martyr. 
His apology contains an account of the doctrine and 
discipline of the eucharist. Had he conceived 
scandal to be occasioned by false representations of 
its nature, he showed that he was free to correct them. 

Once indeed the eucharist is named in connexion 
with these calumnies, but not in such a manner as to 
strengthen the argument for transubstantiation. 
CEcumenius has preserved a fragment of Irenseus, in 
winch he says that the slaves of Christians, Cate- 
chumens, who had heard their masters speak of the 
divine communion as the body and blood of Christ, 
" thinking that it was truly (tw oW) body and 
blood," signified so much to Grecians who had 
apprehended them. This would hardly be ac- 
counted serviceable to the argument of the Irish 
Gentleman, inasmuch as it testifies indirectly against 
transubstantiation, and shows how the eucharistic 
presence could be figurative and yet so misinterpret- 
ed as to furnish a pretext for defamation.* 

rated with the impieties of heretics to excite prejudice against 
Christians. "What the editor in his own person gives in a note, 
he would gladly have inserted in the text. 

* Baronius relates a dreadful story of a sect of heretics who 
were said to have wounded in very many parts of the body a 
male infant of one year old, and to have used the blood in the 
eucharistic bread. If the child lived he became their high 
priest ; if he died of his wounds, they recounted him a martyr. 
Jerome, Epiphanius, Philastrius, x\ugustine, and others, are 
reported to have preserved this story, which however, according 
to Baronius, does not appear to be clearly proved. —Bar. Cent 



84 



GUIDE TO AN 



I am seriously inclined to believe, that, in the 
jugglery of the heretic Marcus, a foundation for the 
offensive reports against the Christians can be found, 
no less than in distorted representations of their own 
discipline and doctrine. However, it serves a dif- 
ferent purpose in " the Travels." " He contrived 
by some mechanical process to produce the appear- 
ance of blood flowing into the chalice after the words 
of consecration." 66 Were any additional proof 
wanting of the prevalence- in those times of a belief 
of the transubstantiation of the wine into blood, this 
effort of the Marcionite heretic to outbid, if I may 
so say, the orthodox altar in its marvels, would 
abundantly furnish it." The Traveller's account of 
this imposture is confirmed by an extract from the 
Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire des Egaremens de 
Tesprit humain,* &c. &c. " II (Marc) avoit deux 

173-9. One thing will approve itself to every unprejudiced 
enquirer, that, from whatever source the calumnies against the 
Christians were derived, especially those relative to the cannibal 
orgies, the foundation or pretext for them is traced to the 
Heretics. Indeed it would seem as if the orthodox became the 
victim of their own contrivances. They appear to have been 
credulous in receiving, and most industrious in circulating every 
species of defamation against those who differed from them in 
faith ; they were ready to ascribe to heretics the most enormous 
errors and to tax them with the foulest practices. Eventually 
they suffered under a common reproach with those of whom, 
whether justly or not, they had spread an evil report. 

Could heretics, so early, have begun to elaborate the doctrine 
of transubstantiation, and were the orthodox influenced and justi- 
fied, by secret and indistinct rumours respecting such a rite, in 
imagining those stories which are now so ingeniously perverted. 
* Travels, Vol. 1, p. 149. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



85 



vases, un plus grand et un plus petit ; il mettoit le 
vin destine, a la celebration du sacrifice de la Messe 
dans le petit vase, et faisoit une priere ; un instant 
apres la liqueur bouillonnoit dans le grand vase, et 
. Ton y voyoit du sang au lieu du vin." 
I There is a spirit of noble daring in the argument 
• constructed on this incident, but it is not as discreet 
\ as it is enterprising. The pretended miracle of 
i Marcus was " an effort to outbid the orthodox." * 
It may have been, if the orthodox believed that there 
\ was no transubstantiation. If they believed in that 
doctrine, the attempt of the impostor was far from 
" outdoing" them. They performed the two-fold 
j miracle of changing the wine, and separating acci- 
dents from their substance, or, if it may be so said, 
bringing blood into the chalice, and rendering it 
invisible. The imposture which counterfeited by far 
the less wonderful part of this great marvel, could 
not properly be said to surpass it ; and, inasmuch as 
it certainly surpassed the appearance of a figurative 
eucharist, we ought perhaps to argue, from the suc- 
cess he obtained, that what the heretic had to outdo 
or outbid, was not the complicated mystery of Tran- 
substantiation. 

But it is directly asserted, that this was the change 
the heretic designed to counterfeit. It was effected 
in the Mass, " le vin destine a la celebration du sa- 
crifice de la Messe." It was done " in rivalry of 
the Catholic Eucharist." It was an absurd counter- 
feit of " that blood of which the heretics at the same 

* Travels, Vol. 1, p. 150. 



85 



GUIDE TO AN 



time denied the reality." That is to say, the delusion 
of Marcus presupposes " the Mass" and all its ac- 
companiments. This must be determined by the 
historical account of the circumstances, in which his 
imposture was successfully attempted. Where, then, 
is this historical account contained. The " Travels," 
in direct terms, convey one part, that it was in imi- 
tation of the orthodox ; the Memoires vouch for the 
other, which relates to the sacrifice of the mass ! 

It is really wonderful to witness the activity with 
which evidences suitable to their purpose are sought 
out by those who have the honor of the Church 
of Rome at heart, and how rapidly they fly from 
Father to Father, and from all the Fathers to some 
adventurous modern, if his reasonings or his alle- 
gations are more accommodating to their purposes. 
" Curse me Protestantism" is the command under 
which they seem to act ; and if, standing on the 
eminences of early Christian literature, a spirit of 
blessing is within them, there is a Balak at hand to 
say, " Come, I pray thee, to another place, where 
thou shalt see" (them) ; " thou shalt see but the 
utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all — 
curse me them from thence." Was a deceiving 
spirit of this kind companion to the Irish Gentleman 
in his Tour, which, causing him to forsake the 
summits whence the primitive Church was had in 
prospect, taught him that the points of view from 
which least could be seen, would be most conducive 
to his purposes, and would least appal him with the 
vision of Protestantism ? 

The original account of the impostures of the he- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 87 

retic Marcus is contained in the writings of Irenaeus ; 
and it is remarkable, that the circumstances which 
rendered the juggle worthy of being converted into 
an argument in favour of transubstantiation, are not 
noticed in the early Fathers' report — nor, indeed, so 
far as I have been able to discover, by any early 
author. Even Baronius, at least in the enormous 
abridgment of his annals, by Spondamus, (the only 
form in which I have had opportunity to consult 
him,) is silent altogether as to those particulars 
from which the Irish gentleman argues an agreement 
between the Roman and the primitive doctrine of 
the eucharist. That, among the impostures of Mar- 
cus, one was a change in the appearance of the 
eucharistic chalice, or its contents, may be acknow- 
ledged ; but that he had not any design to imitate 
the orthodox, or display in a visible form, what they 
offered under the species of wine, is not only not 
authenticated, but is met by the fullest and most 
decisive contradiction which, in the circumstances of 
the case, could be offered or expected. 

Marcus, as Irenseus represents, " was a true pre- 
cursor of anti-christ ; for, combining the juggling 
practices of Anaxilaus with " the impiety of those 
who are called Magi, he is reputed, among such as 
have not understanding, to perform mighty works.* 
Feigning to bless the cups mingled with wine, and 



* Iren. lib. i. c. 8. We have not the Greek of the above 
expression. In the Latin version it is " perficere virtutes ;" 
virtus being used elsewhere by the translator, as synonimous 
with the Greek, tvvex,^. 



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prolonging the prayer of invocation, he causes them 
to appear red or purple, that it may be thought that 
the grace from those over all, drops her blood in the 
cup, and that they who are present may become 
very desirous to partake of the liquor, in order that 
on them also, the grace invoked by the magician, may 
overflow. Again, giving to women mingled cups, 
he commands them to bless in his presence; and, 
when this is done, presenting another cup much 
larger than that which the deluded female has blessed, 
and emptying from the smaller, blessed by the 
woman, into that which he has prepared, speaking 
at the same time, thus, < May she who was before 
all, the incomprehensible and ineffable grace, fill 
your inner man, and accomplish in you knowledge 
of her, sowing the grain of mustard seed in a good 
soil ;' speaking thus, and stimulating into madness 
the unhappy creature, he appears a wonder-worker, 
the large cup becoming filled from the smaller, so as 
to overflow. By practices of this nature, he has de- 
ceived many, and drawn them after him; and it is 
understood that he has an attendant or familiar 
(7rapedpov) daemon, through which he seems to pro- 
phecy, and imparts the gift to as many females as he 
accounts worthy participators in his grace." 

Such is the narrative of Irenaeus, as to the impos- 
ture of Marcus noticed in " the Travels" and his 
success in gaining proselytes. I could perhaps make 
the passage and my comments clearer, by entering 
more at large into the subject, but an exposure of all 
the doctrines taught, and the delusions practised by 
this profligate blasphemer, would be an evil attended 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



89 



by no compensating advantage. I confine myself, 
therefore, to a few remarks on the extract presented 
to the reader. Marcus is said to have combined the 
arts of the juggler Anaxilaus, with the impiety of 
the Magi. Anaxilaus appears to have been remark- 
able for feats of legerdemain, especially for changing 
the colour of liquids contained in glass cups. Arti- 
fices of this kind were not employed by Marcus for 
the purpose of illustrating any Christian doctrine. 
It was with magic the jugglery was united. It is in 
the next place to be observed, that the blood 
brought down into the chalice was not produced as 
the blood of Christ, but of an imaginary being from 
whom the Valentinians (among whom Marcus held a 
distinguished place,) professed to believe the (Eons 
had proceeded. In the third place it is to be re- 
membered, that the miracles, (the jugglery rather) 
had such an effect on many, as to authenticate the 
wild doctrine to which it ministered, and to draw them 
from the faith — and finally, that, upon an occasion, 
when, were the doctrine of the Church of Rome, 
the doctrine of the primitive Church, some reflec- 
tion on the outraged tenet might have reasonably 
been looked for, not a single expression or term is 
employed, by which such an agreement could, 
however faintly, be indicated. 

Let the reader then bear in remembrance, that 
" the celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass," is the 
exclusive property of the French collector, that the 
discovery of the heretics design, to outdo or " out- 
bid" the eucharist, is altogether an original inven- 
tion, or else rests upon anonymous and most proba. 



90 GUIDE TO AN 

bly insufficient evidence, and that, accordingly, the 
case, when stated most favourably for the Church of 
Rome, divested of all the attendant circumstances 
which make against her, is this— the Heretic 
Marcus changed the colour of a liquid contained in 
the eucharistic cup, and, by the pretended miracle, 
seduced numbers from the faith. If we are called 
on to decide, by such imposture and its result, what 
the faith was, the question will find its answer in the 
reply to another inquiry;— who would be likely 
to think the deceit the greater marvel, those whose 
discipline of a figurative presence was confessedly 
surpassed, or the believers in transubstantiation. 

It has been advanced, as a boast, at least as a 
merit on the part of the Church of Rome, that she 
extended the principle of becoming all things, to 
all men, so far as to admit Paganism into her disci- 
pline, for the purpose of attracting heathens.* Is it 

* " So far from denying their adoption of some Pagan 
customs, the early Christians would have avowed and justified 
such a policy," &c. « The numerous vestiges, indeed, of old 
Paganism which partly from this policy, partly from the force of 
habit and imitation, were still retained in the Ritual, language 
and ceremonies of the early Church would take far more space 
than my present limits can afford to enumerate them." Travels 
&c. vol. I. p. 183, 184. « The Catholics themselves are 
amongst the first to avow it, well knowing, however the Protes- 
tants may wish to blink such a conclusion, that these occasional 
resemblances to the forms of Paganism, in the ceremonies of 
their Church, form one of the countless proofs she can give of 
the high antiquity of her descent." Ibid. p. 187. If the 
■7- religion of the Church of Rome be acknowledged as heathenism 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



91 



likely that she would not indulge in equal latitude, 
| when the object was to rescue her own children 
from foul and execrable heresy, or to guard them 
against the wiles of accomplished and most flagitious 
deceivers. The tendency of the delusion, which 
Marcus found so successful, was, to create, in the 
minds of those who witnessed his performances, 
admiration of his power, and to indispose them for 
feeling interest in the sober and spiritual worship of 
the orthodox. The obvious mode of destroying his 
influence which would present itself to accommodat- 
ing Christians, not having the knowledge by which his 
artifices could be exposed, would be, to abate the 
reverence which his wonders had attracted to him, 
by magnifying what was done in their own assem- 
blies. If they believed only in a figurative eucharist, 
they would endeavour to show how the type became 
exalted and (it would not be too much to anticipate) 
sacred, by its correspondence with the holy thing 
which it represented. If they believed in a spiritual 
presence, they would strive not to exalt (for that 
would be impossible) the majesty of their belief, 
but they would exercise all their ability in so exhi- 

with a few Christian appendages, the justice of these proofs 
is fully admitted, but if it be insisted that the substance of the 
religion is Christianity, that the embellishments alone are 
Pagan, the proofs come with a bad grace from the professed 
followers of him who warned his disciples against the folly of 
putting new wine into old bottles. It was no easy matter to 
dislodge heathenism, when a habitation was given. If for a 
moment removed, it would say, " I will return to my house, &c." 



92 



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biting the doctrine, that it should be vividly appre- 
hended. To this object piety as well as genius 
would be dedicated, and in the effort to explain 
spiritual gifts, the language of metaphor would, as 
was natural, be largely and fearlessly employed. 
The early Christian writers and orators were not 
protected by the restraints of a nicely discriminating 
taste or a severe judgment ; and, in the exertions 
which the impiety of the impostor provoked, it 
would not be wonderful if the sorceries he practised 
on the cup, they, in some intances, undesignedly 
wrought upon the doctrine of the eucharist, by the 
extravagances of a copious and fervid, but what 
might perhaps be styled a barbarous and empirical 
eloquence. 

Thus, it may be, the source of transubstantiation 
has been discovered. It is certainly remarkable, 
that, subsequently to the practises of Marcus, during 
the period too, when the discipline of the secret was 
in force, those testimonies, on which the young Tra- 
veller relies, appear to have been furnished most 
abundantly. That they do not justify his conclu- 
sions it is scarcely necessary to affirm, but that they 
betray the excitement and eagerness which were 
naturally to be looked for, should not be denied or 
doubted. They cannot deceive any who take the 
trouble to investigate their meaning, but they are, 
in various instances, calculated to dazzle and delude 
the unwary. There are still many whom the juggle 
of the cup can deceive ; there are also many to whom 
exaggerated epithets and wild figures of speech may 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



93 



serve to disguise pure doctrine.* Increase of know- 
ledge and exercise of the reflecting power, will, it 
is hoped, in time, apply their correctives, and, it 
is, meanwhile, a matter for which we should be 
deeply thankful, that, by observance of the unsus- 
picious rule which St. Augustine laid down, even 
the most ignorant may be guarded against the evils 
of figurative language. This is one of the cases in 
which a name is so valuable. The judgment of 
Augustine coincides with that of most thinking men, 
but the authority is all his own. A precept of our 
blessed Lord himself, he would receive only as a 



* Among the most distinguished proficients in the eloquence 
by which Marcus was outbid, Chrysostom has always held a 
high place. The following passage, from his work on the Priest- 
hood, has been (with singular naivete, or with that reliance on 
the understanding of his readers, which succeeds best when it is 
most daring) adduced by the Rev. Alban Butler, in support of 
the doctrine of the mass : " When you behold the Lord lying 
himself the victim on the altar, and offered up, and the priest 
attending and praying over the sacrifice, purpled with his precious 
blood," &c. &c. This seems to rival the purpled cups of Mar- 
cus ; but, supposing that the orator had not the fear of transub- 
stantiation before his eyes, and an apprehension that his words 
might be perverted (as they have been) to countenance heresy, 
it is not at all wonderful that he should have used the strongest 
terms, which, as in the instance quoted by Mr. Butler, are so 
obviously figurative, that to account them otherwise would be 
to say that Chrysostom had outdone the Marcionite in his 
impostures. When eloquence failed, it is probable that grosser 
miracles were constructed, and that they made way for transub- 
stantiation. 



94 



GUIDE TO AN 



figure, because it directed, what, literally under- 
stood, would be wickedness, namely, to eat his flesh 
and to drink his blood. Let such as cannot examine 
for themselves, the cloud of false witnesses which 
gather to the carcase of transubstantiation, try their 
testimony by a rule to which none can object, who 
would establish Roman doctrine by the authority of 
the Fathers. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



95 



CHAPTER VII. 

Testimonies — Councils — Creeds — Liturgies — Canon of the 
Mass now observed in Ireland. 

When Protestants describe the first four centuries* 
of the Church, as containing records, in which the 
faith was most purely preserved, they allude to 
documents of simpler character and of higher au- 
thority than the testimonies of individual writers. 
The authorities, to which they refer, are the four 
councils, in which the great doctrines of the three 
creeds were defined ; and to these, they may have 
directed inquirers, not because of submission ac- 
knowledged to the Synods as of right, but, because, 
in their decrees, they affirmed the doctrine of 
scripture. That the early Church, even so late as 
the sixth century, concurred in the respect, which 
Protestants have expressed, for the decisions in the 

* Rather it should be saiol, five centuries, in which the four 
councils of Nice, A.D. 3$5. Constantinople, A.D. 381. 
Ephesus, A.D. 431. Chalcedon, A.D. 451. Of the acts 
of these councils, we may regard as the result, the Nicene and 
Athanasian creed. 



96 



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first four councils, the following circumstance will 
testify. 

The exaggerated terms of approbation, in which 
Gregory the Great signified his judgment of the 
truths declared in these Synods, is very generally 
known. Conceiving their decisions to be purely 
Scriptural, he wrote in one of his epistles as if his 
respect for them was such as he felt for the gospels. 
This was, no doubt, disproportionate praise, but 
it was less offensive as given to what he believed 
to be Scriptural truth. He was desirous, however, 
that what is now received by Roman Catholics, 
as the second general council of Constantinople, 
should be united in honor with its predecessors, and 
found it difficult to prevail. On one occasion, he 
had addressed an epistle to Theodelinda, Queen of 
the Lombards, which was to have been conveyed to 
the throne by Constantius, bishop of Milan. The 
epistle contained a reference to thejifih council, and 
the bishop declined the charge of it. Gregory, when 
informed of this unwillingness to abet his attempt, 
very modestly submitted to necessity, and returned 
the epistle with the obnoxious passage expunged. 
He wishes the bishop to understand that the council 
of Constantinople, which, he says, many call the 
fifth, contains nothing contrary to the preceding 
four, but, at the same time, commends his discretion 
in not forwarding a document which might occasion 
scandal. " As to your statement, that you would 
not transmit my epistle to Theodelinda, because the 
fifth council was named in it, you acted correctly in 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



97 



1 not sending it. Wherefore, as you desire, we now 

name only four." Ep. ad. Const. Epis. Med. 
d Did these councils or any of them pronounce a 
9 decree of faith respecting the eucharist ? No. How 
I was their silence to be accounted for ? The rule of 
I the secret could not restrain the council of Nice 
i when it was summoned by Constantine, to delibe- 
, rate on matters affecting the welfare of souls. Was 
i there no necessity for such a definition. We have 
I already examined passages which strongly called for 
, animadversion if the Roman doctrines were true, 
i and in " The Travels," we are reminded, that* " a 
, branch of the Gnostic Christians, nearly as old as 
Christianity itself, could not acknowledge the bodily 
presence in the eucharist ;" nay, further, that " could 
I one of these Gnostic Christians now reappear upon 
earth, he would find nothing in the unreal and 
figurative presence, maintained by Church of Eng- 
land divines, that could, in the slightest degree, 
offend his most anti-corporeal notions, or prevent 
him from being conscientiously a partaker of the 
sacrament." If the doctrine of transubstantiation be 
true, there was pestilent error taught concerning it, 
in the first ages of the Church. Why did the error 
pass uncensured by the recognized authorities. 

But there were creeds as well as councils — ap- 
proved also by those general assemblies. Have they 
supplied the deficiency which appears in the acts of 
council, and warned the faithful against insidious 

* Travels, Vol. 1. p. 227. 

H 



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heresy. On the contrary, their silence is of a cha- 
racter from which, it might rationally be inferred, 
that the orthodox held no such doctrine as of a real 
corporeal presence. It may be said, so full are these 
creeds, and so carefully have the articles proposed in 
them, been compiled, that they contain a summary 
of the history of Redemption. Why are they silent 
concerning the most stupendous marvel that was 
ever announced to man. They pronounce that our 
Lord was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born 
of the Virgin Mary ; that he was made man ; that 
he suffered and was buried ; that he arose from the 
dead ; that he ascended into heaven ; that he sitteth 
on the right hand of the Father; that he shall come to 
judge the quick and the dead ; and that, at his com- 
ing, all men shall rise again with their bodies, and 
shall give account for their works. What ingenuity 
can insinuate transubstantiation into this symbol ? 
Our Lord sitteth at the right hand of the Father. 
He shall come — but how — to be hidden under ele- 
ments or species of bread and wine ? No ; " he Com- 
eth to judge the world." What is to take place at 
his coming ; he shall be offered as a -victim on the 
altar ? No ; but all men shall rise with their bodies, 
and shall give an account of their works. What 
shall be said in explanation. That it was not neces- 
sary to insert the article of transubstantiation ; that 
the doctrine was too generally known ? The first 
article in the creed, surely, need not have been re- 
cited, if what was generally known might be, what- 
ever its importance, omitted. Beside, the acknow- 
ledged fact, that the doctrine of the euchartst was 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 99 

■ misrepresented, rendered it necessary strictly to de- 
line its nature. Let this matter be examined, as 
partially as it may, provided it be seriously exa- 
J mined, and the conclusion will force itself irresistibly 
11 on the mind, that, if the doctrine of transubstantia- 
\ tion be true, there are not in existence, documents 
! which, with greater effect and with more dangerous 
1 authority, inculcate heretical doctrine, than those 
1 which have been set forth to teach and guard truth ; 
1 the Apostles, the Nicene and the Athanasian creeds. 
' ' In addition to the decisive testimony, &c. there 
is yet another body of evidence still more ancient 
1 and precious to be found in those liturgies of early 
1 Churches, &c. ; " and whatever interpolations they 
may have, some of them, suffered in their progress, 
' it is not doubted, among the learned, that, in those 
parts where they are found all to agree, they may be 
depended on as authentic monuments of the apostolic 
times."* The enquiring Irish gentleman has not, of 
course, neglected to consult this body of evidence 
which he very deservedly ranks in authority above 
the private testimonies of the most eminent and un- 
inspired individuals. His selection of passages to 
serve his purpose is judicious. The extracts are the 
most favorable he could have chosen, and, as they 
are not very numerous, I esteem it more advisable 
to transcribe them, than to incur the imputation of 
not exhibiting them in all their strength. 

" Liturgy of Jerusalem (called also the Liturgy of 
St. James.) 6 Have mercy on us, O God the Father 
LofC. 

* Travels, Vol. 1. p. 173. 



100 



GUIDE TO AN 



Almighty, and send thy Holy Spirit, the Lord and 
Giver of life, equal in dominion to thee and to thy 
Son; who descended in the likeness of a dove on 
our Lord Jesus Christ — who descended on the Holy 
Apostles in the likeness of tongues of fire — that com- 
ing he may make this bread the life-giving body, the 
saving body, the heavenly body, the body giving 
health to souls and bodies, the body of our Lord, 
God and Saviour, Jesus, for the remission of sins 
and eternal life to those who receive it. Amen. 
Wherefore we offer to thee, Oh Lord, this tremen- 
dous and unbloody sacrifice, for thy holy places which 
thou hast enlightened by the manifestation of Christ 
thy Son,' &c. &c. 

' 6 Liturgy of Alexandria (called also the Liturgy 
of St. Mark.) 6 Send down upon us, and upon this 
bread and this chalice, thy Holy Spirit, that he may 
sanctify and consecrate them, as God Almighty, and 
make the bread indeed the body, and the chalice the 
blood of the New Testament of the very Lord God 
and Saviour, and our Sovereign King, Jesus Christ,' 
&c. &c. 

' ' Roman Liturgy (called also the Liturgy of St. 
Peter.) £ We beseech thee, O God, to cause that 
this oblation may be, in all things, blessed, admitted, 
ratified, reasonable, and acceptable, that it may 
become for us, the body and blood of thy beloved 
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.'* 

* Travels, vol. I. p. 176. A passage follows the above 
which I do not well understand how to class, whether as if 
taken from the old liturgy or supplied by the author of " The 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 101 

" Liturgy of Constantinople. < Bless, O Lord, the 
holy bread, make indeed this bread the precious body 
of thy Christ Bless, O Lord, the holy chalice, and 
what is in this chalice, the precious blood of thy 
Christ, changing by the Holy Spirit.' " 

Such are the fragments which "the Traveller," 
with a degree of skill, denoting rather the subtlety 
of a practised controversialist than the intuition of 
early genius, and, with an economy to w^hose coun- 
sels young authors seldom listen, has taken from 
the passages in which their meaning is fully shown, 
and presented as testimonies favourable to transub- 
stantiation. I will not delay the reader by an enquiry 
into the character of the documents from which the 
extracts have been made, nor detain him by giving 
proofs of what, were our Traveller of more mature 
acquaintance with his subject, might be termed clis- 
ingenuousness. He who would understand the in- 
struction to be derived from liturgies (and it well 



Travels." It is, " At the communion, bowing down in senti- 
ments of profound adoration, and humbly addressing himself 
to Jesus Christ, then present in his hand, he says, thrice, 
" Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my 
roof, but say only the word, and my soul shall be healed." I 
have not been able to discover any authority for the passage. 
In the Canon of the Mass, it is said that the priest shall beat 
his breast, and repeat the words, " Lord, I am not worthy," 
&c. ; but, as to addressing himself to Jesus Christ, " then present 
in his hand," unless he condescend to name his author, I appre- 
hend we must be contented to regard it as the rubric of the 
Traveller. 



102 GUIDE TO AN 

deserves to be understood) ought not to be satisfied 
with the brief notice they could obtain here, and 
can have his laudable curiosity encouraged and re- 
warded, by an unprejudiced study of a recent and 
most valuable work, " On the antiquities of the 
English Ritual and Primitive Liturgies."* To that 
elaborate and able production I willingly refer, and, 
for myself, undertake the humbler office of simply 
reminding my reader, that, receiving the extracts 
from ancient liturgies exactly as the Traveller has 
presented them before us, with those typographical 
distinctions by which he would direct notice to what 
he esteems most important for the purpose he has in 
view, nothing appears by which the doctrine of the 

* Origines Liturgicse, by the Rev. William Palmer — a work 
1 intended and calculated to have permanence — evidently com- 
posed by one in whom the love of antiquity is second only to 
his love of truth, and in whom the union of uncompromising 
attachment to his principles, with the temperance which befits a 
witness of Christian doctrine, recalls to the mind (what modern 
times would almost cause to be forgotten) the distinction be- 
tween moderation and indifference. The Origines Liturgicse 
have no place for those compendious processes which serve well 
for a temporary purpose, and are often valued because they 
promise relief from the labor of thinking. Mr. Palmer has 
examined all parts of his subject, the minute, as well as the 
greater and more prominent, with a degree of attention which 
the superficial cannot understand, but for which all who are 
capable of comprehending how much the conclusion of a long 
and varied course of reasoning may depend on the accuracy 
with which seemingly small matters are ascertained, will feel 
deep gratitude. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



103 



Church of Rome is countenanced, and very clear 
indications are afforded, that, even by these chosen 
passages of chosen liturgies, her peculiar tenets are 
discredited. 

The doctrine of transubstantiation teaches that the 
substance of the elements departs, and the substance 
of the Lord's body is produced in place of it ; and 
that, with the body, by concomitance, the blood, and 
the soul, and the divinity of the Saviour are, of ne- 
cessity, connected. If the liturgies of ancient times 
were compiled by those, and for those, who believed 
in a doctrine like this, should we not expect to find 
conformity between the belief and the prayers of 
consecration ? What the priest and the people ex- 
pected was, that the substance of the elements should 
depart, and that, into their place, the substance of 
the body of our Lord, the second person in the Messed 
Trinity, should descend. Is there any thing like this 
in the extracts by which the Irish Gentleman would 
prove his position ? No. There is a prayer that the 
Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, would 
come down, and, by resting on the elements, make 
the bread the body of Christ, and the wine his 
blood — a prayer conformable to a belief which has 
been entertained by some divines of Protestant 
communions, in a spiritual presence, but altogether 
at variance with the doctrine which, under pain of 
anathema, the Church of Rome commands to be 
accepted. I would propose to any member of that 
Church, to ask himself, or to enquire of those 
who are competent to instruct him, what was the 
wisdom of framing prayers so directly opposed to 



104 



GUIDE TO AN 



the object for which they were designed, or, at least, 
so widely estranged from it? Will anyreflecting 
man seriously affirm, that it is by such petitions, 
spoken in the literal sense of the terms, he im- 
plores that the bread and wine shall depart, (on 
which, verbally, he prays that the spirit of blessing 
may descend,) and the substance (which has not 
been named in the petition) of the Lord's body shall 
assume the place of the departed elements ? If the 
" literal sense" can permit such licentiousness of in- 
terpretation, all reasoning is at an end ; language 
has undergone a change, by which it ceases to be an 
instrument of thought, and the question of doctrine 
would not even be simplified by an admission 
that the words of our Lord, " This is my body," 
were literal. Yet the champion of the Church of 
Rome has no resource — if he deny what would be 
tantamount to affirming that " figurative" and " li- 
teral" are the same — but to assert, that the early 
liturgies are too figurative to be adduced, or to con- 
fess that they bear testimony against transubstantia- 
tion. 

An extensive survey of ancient liturgies will exhibit 
very abundant proofs, that none who held the doc- 
trine of modern Rome assisted in their compilation. 
But perhaps for the present purpose it will be suffi- 
cient to adduce a single testimony, inasmuch as it 
shall be borne by the " Canon of the Mass," as in use 
at the present day, and in our own country. The 
prayer of consecration, the only one in which the 
conversion of the elements is implored, is as follows — 
" Vouchsafe, we beseech thee, O God, to make this 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 105 

offering in all things blessed, approved, ratified, rea- 
sonable, and acceptable : that it may be made for us 
the body and blood* of thy most beloved son, Jesus 
Christ." The words of commemoration are next 
recited, as in the liturgy of Milan, inserting the 
words " the mystery of faith," but abstaining from 
the expressions with which the Milan commemora- 
tion terminates. f The following prayer is next of- 
fered — " Wherefore, O Lord, we thy servants, as 
also thy holy people, being mindful both of the 
blessed passion of the same Christ thy Son our Lord, 
and of his resurrection, and also of his glorious 
ascension into heaven, offer unto thy most excellent 
Majesty, of thy gifts bestowed upon us, a pure host, 
an immaculate host, the holy bread of eternal life, 
and the chalice of everlasting salvation. Upon which 

* The reader is not to be surprised at such expressions, or to 
imagine that they countenance the notion of such a change as 
transubstantiation implies. It should be remembered that many 
of the ancient Fathers explained the terms, alleging that signs 
were called by the names of the things they signified. The 
Council of Carthage, declaring what things should be offered, 
and confining them to bread and wine, says that only the " body 
and blood of the Lord should be used — that is, bread and wine 
mingled with water." Cone. Carth. Can. 40. Zonaras, p. 426. 

f They are these — " Hsec quotiescunque feceritis, mortem 
meam praedicabetis. Resurrectionem meam annuntiabitis. Ad- 
ventum meum sperabitis, donee iterum de cselis veniam ad vos." 
As often as you do these things, you shall proclaim my death, 
you shall announce my resurrection, you shall hope for my 
coming, until again I shall come to you from, heaven. The 
canon now in use substitutes, " As often as ye do these things, 
ye shall do them in remembrance of me. " 



106 



GUIDE TO AN 



vouchsafe to look with propitious and serene counte- 
nance, and to accept them, as thou wert pleased 
graciously to accept the gifts of thy just servant, Abel, 
and the sacrifice of our Patriarch, Abraham, and 
that which thy High Priest Melchisedek offered to 
thee, a holy sacrifice, and an immaculate host/' 
Thus, after the consecration and change, God is im- 
plored to look with propitious and serene counte- 
nance on the offering, and to accept it graciously, as 
he had accepted the offerings of irrational or lifeless 
things, from man's hand. Can the idea of blasphemy 
proceed to a more daring excess than this, that a 
sinful man shall imagine himself an intercessor for 
our Lord Jesus Christ, imploring that God will 
vouchsafe to look upon Him with a benign counte- 
nance, and accept Him graciously, as he accepted 
the firstlings of Abel's flock. It is not possible. 
Regarding the elements as signs of Christ's body 
and blood, the expressions are intelligible ; other- 
wise, adapted to the Trent decree, they serve only 
to denote the fatal consequences of a doctrine which 
contemplates the " conversion of the Godhead into 
flesh, not the taking of the manhood into God." 

One word more upon this subject, and I have 
done. What I am about to write may serve to show 
how nature will assert her privileges and provide 
admitted substitutes in the place of an incredible 
dogma. I have, at this moment, lying before me, 
two books of prayer in use among my Roman Ca- 
tholic countrymen. One is called the Poor Man's 
Manual, and the other, the Key of Paradise. One 
is published with the recommendatory notice. " Per- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



107 



missu Superioruni," both appear to have found much 
favor, and both contain instructions and " short pray- 
ers at mass, necessary for the better understanding" 
These devotional assistances are recommended in the 
" Key of Paradise," by the following preface : " The 
sacrifice of the mass celebrated in memory of the 
passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ, as he com- 
manded his apostles, when giving them his body and 
blood, he said, do this in remembrance of me, that 
is, do this in memory of my passion, as if he 
would have said, rememember that I suffered for 
your salvation ; let therefore this mystery be brought 
in use by you, for the good of you and yours." The 
prayers and instructions follow, and compel us to 
discern in the mass, a representation of the death 
and passion of our Lord, every incident in the type 
being designed to suggest the remembrance of some 
circumstance in the awful events it figured. Thus, 
" when the priest begins the mass ; Jesus enters the 
garden," and a prayer suitable to the remembrance is 
provided. Through all the ceremonies there is the 
same system of explanation continued, nor does the 
interpreter discontinue his office when the solemnities 
are of the most awful significancy. " At the unveil- 
ing of the chalice, Jesus is despoiled of his garments. 
At the covering of the chalice, Jesus is crowned 
with thorns." When the priest washeth his fingers, 
Pilate washeth his hands. When the priest holds his 
hands over the chalice, Veronica offers Jesus a towel. 
When the priest signs the oblation, Jesus is nailed 
to the cross. At the elevation of the host the cross 
is raised up." The prayers, in all these cases, are 



108 



GUIDE TO AN 



suggested by the incident in the passion, not by the 
representation on the altar ; that, at the raising up of 
the host, which furnishes a fair specimen of ail, being— 
" Lord Jesus Christ, who wouldst be raised on the 
cross, and in that manner be exalted from the earth 
for my sake, raise me, I beseech thee, from all 
earthly affections that my soul may always live in 
heaven." In one of these books of prayer, the in- 
structions are accompanied by engravings, in each 
of which, as in Raphael's Transfiguration, a two fold 
action is represented. The chapel, with its lights 
and altar, officiating priest and his juvenile acolytes, 
occupies the lower space, a screen of clouds sepe- 
rates this from the upper part of the engraving, 
where the incident represented below, is, not very 
gracefully, but, with the aid of the title, intelligibly, 
delineated. It is carefully contrived, that, wherever 
circumstances admit, the eyes of the priest shall have 
an upward direction, as if he were guiding the peo- 
ple where their thoughts should be lifted. In some 
instances, indeed, this is unnecessary, as, for exam- 
ple, where the enormous size of the scourge and lash 
and the fury of the executioners, or where, with 
weighty hammers and cruel blows, the hands of 
Jesus are in the act of being nailed to the tree, sug- 
gest with much more painful vehemence than the 
tranquil representation below, the remembrance 
which ought to be cherished. But the fact is, that, 
even in lifting the host and the chalice, so far from 
observing the directions which The Traveller boun- 
tifully added (at least without naming the giver) to 
the liturgy of Rome, the pictured priest has his eye 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 109 

piercing the clouds and seems as if he listened for 
the sounds of the cruel blows that were impiously 
inflicted above. What does all this mean ? If the 
mass be a representation of the passion of Christ, it 
seems reasonable to direct the thoughts and heart to 
the great things commemorated. If the Lord Jesus, 
in the body, come down to present himself on the 
altar, it is indignity to him to have the minds of the 
congregation set on any thing but the miracle of 
divine condescension then wrought for their benefit. 
I conclude, therefore, that, whatever be the doctrine 
which Rome holds, she acts as if she regarded the 
mass, as, in some sort, a dramatic representation of 
Christ's suffering for our sins ; and as if to serve the 
purpose of such a representation were its principal 
end and object. 



110 



GUIDE TO AN 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Scripture — Cyril of Jerusalem — Sixth Chapter of St. John — 
1 Epistle to Corinthians, c. 11. 

Among the divines, by whose writings the Irish 
Gentleman hoped to be guided on his way, none 
appears to have afforded him more satisfaction than 
Cyril of Jerusalem. And yet, it may be said with 
truth, Cyril left behind him one counsel, which the 
Traveller disregarded, of far greater excellence than 
any to which he gave attention. " Respecting the 
divine and holy sacraments of faith," he says, " no- 
thing, not even the most minute, should be deli- 
vered without the authority of the Divine Scriptures, 
nor should they be traced out by simple probability 
or by ornamented language. Nor should you yield 
your faith to me proposing these things to you, 
unless you receive from the Divine Scriptures, de- 
monstration of what I say ; for the safety and pre- 
servation of our faith is not eloquence of speech but 
approval of the Holy Scriptures."* It would be easy 
to pardon, even had he erred in his instructions as 
widely as the Traveller represents, and far more 
widely than he has really strayed, one who could so 
fully and honestly set up the standard by which his 
mistakes can be corrected. 



* Cat. Myst. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



Ill 



The Irish Gentleman was so little influenced by 
the advice, or even by the example, of Cyril, whose 
writings frequently are nothing more than scriptural 
passages connected together, that in the seven hun- 
dred pages of his work, it is probable, ten are not 
dedicated to the Holy Scriptures. It ought to have 
approved itself to his mind, that, if he desired to 
learn the religion which God had taught, he should 
have sought it in the book which He had commanded 
to be written for our learning. 

" The awful announcement then made (in the dis- 
course of our Lord, St. John, vi.) of the miracu- 
lous feast about to be instituted, followed up, as it 
was, on the solemn night of the institution, by 
those simple and irrefragable words, ' This is my 
body,' form the grounds of that implicit Catholic 
belief which the Church " has, at all times, main- 
tained."* Here is the candor of an ingenuous young 
man. He rests his dependance upon Scripture. 
Whatever men may have said, if they spake not 
according to that good book, they were nothing. 

" He transferred them to another banquet — a 
banquet most tremendous, saying, Take, eat, this 
is my body. How was it that they were not struck 
with terror when they heard this ? Because he had 
previously discoursed with them at large on the sub- 
ject."-)- This passage is quoted from Chrysostom to 
prove that, at an early age, the sixth chapter of St. 
John's Gospel was regarded as containing, in our 
blessed Saviour's discourse, a preparation for the 



* Travels, Vol. I. p. 225. 



f Ibid. 



112 



GUIDE TO AN 



sacrament which he afterwards instituted. I should 
not be disposed to contest the matter, even if the au- 
thority of Chrysostom, or any other eminent indivi- 
dual, had not been brought forward to influence its 
decision. The command of our Lord to eat his 
flesh and drink his blood must have appeared awful 
to any hearers of slow imagination and meanly 
instructed. It must have still more affrighted the 
apostles, whose religious sentiments taught them to 
regard with abhorrence the tasting of blood, to ac- 
count indeed a breach of the commandment by 
which it was prohibited, an offence deserving of 
death. 

The sentiments of the apostles, or rather the dis- 
cipline from which they imbibed them, should be 
somewhat more fully considered. They were straitly 
prohibited from tasting blood — they were taught 
that the penalty of violating the precept was death — 
and they were instructed also in the reason why 
such a command was given. In every particular, 
the command of the Lord Jesus was directly op- 
posed to that in the fear of which they had been 
brought up. The law forbade them to taste flesh 
with the life thereof which is the blood.* The Lord 
commanded them to eat flesh and to drink blood. 
The law declared, the soul that tasteth blood shall 
die.\ the Lord Jesus commanded them to eat and 
drink that they might live ; declaring that except 
they eat of his flesh and drink of his blood they 
must die. The law declared that the reason why 

* Gen. ix. 4. f Lev. xvii. 10. passim. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



113 



they should not dare to taste blood— why they must 
perish if they transgressed, was because it was given 
to make atonement for the remission of their sins.* 
The Lord assigned, as the precise reason, why they 
must eat and drink, that which the laiv gave for 
their abstaining, " for it is shed for you and for 
many for the remission of sins." Thus, it is impos- 
sible to imagine a more decided opposition than pre- 
vailed between the instructions of the law, wherein 
they had been brought up, and the precept of their 
master ; and this was exhibited to men who attached 
equal importance to the ceremonial precept respect- 
ing blood as they did to moral enactments, and by 
him who declared, that he came not to destroy the 
law but to fulfil. It seems to me, therefore, very 
natural, to imagine that, had the apostles been un- 
prepared for the institution of the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, they would have testified their 
amazement ; and I look upon the discourse in the 
sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, as having dis- 
posed them to receive their master's words without 
horror or opposition. 

There were three modes by either of which the 
minds of the Apostles could be prepared to afford a 
quiet submission to a precept which seemed ad- 
verse to their law— by becoming convinced that, in 
its literal sense, the new commandment did not 
repeal the old, or that it was enacted by competent 
authority, or else that it was to be figuratively or 
spiritually understood. That the command to drink 
the blood of Christ, literally interpreted, was op- 

* Lev. xvii. 11. 

I 



114 



GUIDE TO AN 



posed to the Jewish law, cannot admit a question- 
doubly opposed — to the positive precept, and to the 
reason for which such a precept was given. That 
they did not hold the law relating to blood abolished 
is clear also. It is proved that the distinction of 
clean and unclean remained in Peters mind, from 
the vision in which the Lord reproved him ; and it is 
clear, that the apostles who continued, in their as- 
sembly at Jerusalem, the prohibition against tasting 
blood, could not have supposed it abolished. Let 
us see, then, whether an unprejudiced man would be 
inclined to think the third explanation reasonable, 
and to interpret our Lord's discourse in a figurative 
or spiritual, rather than in a literal acceptation* 

Two passages in this most important discourse 
should be placed in juxta-position. They are those 
which contemplate belief, and the eating the flesh of 
the Lord, and drinking his blood. 

ST. JOHN, VI. ST. JOHN, VI. 

40 And this is the will of 54 Whoso eateth my flesh 

him that sent me, that every and drinketh my blood, hath 

one which seeth the Son, and eternal life, and I will raise 

believeth on him, may have him up at the last day. 

everlasting life, and I will raise 53 Except ye eat the flesh 

him up at the last day. of the Son of Man, and drink 

47 Verily, verily, I say unto his blood, ye have no life in 

you, he that believeth on me you. 
hath everlasting life. 

Here it is distinctly Here it is said, that 

said, that life and the re- those who eat of the flesh 

surrection are bestowed of the Son of Man, and 

upon every one who be- drink his blood, and none 

lieves in our Lord Jesus other, shall have life and 

Christ. the resurrection. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



115 



Unless we go the length of saying, that, in one 
part of his discourse, our Lord would revoke a pro* 
mise which he had most distinctly given in another, 
we must admit that, in the above passages of Scrip- 
ture, there is not opposition. A brief survey of the 
discourse, and the circumstances in which it was 
spoken, will render their perfect correspondence in 
spirit and expression more plainly evident. 

A multitude, who had followed our blessed Sa* 
viour into his retirement, were miraculously fed, in 
a place where, without miracle, food could not be 
procured. Availing himself of the opportunity to 
recommend good counsel, as his custom was, he 
magnified the blessedness of partaking of that hea* 
venly food which contains the gift of immortality, 
and declared that he was, himself, the bread of life 
which came down from heaven. From the thirty- 
second to the fortieth verse, inclusive, this truth is 
taught, that Christ was the bread which came 
from heaven — and bestowed immortal life, and that 
belief in him was the means through which the 
benefit and blessing were imparted. Thus far, the 
expression eat or drink is not found. To believe 
in him — to come unto him — are the expressions with 
which the promise of life is connected. So far, the 
hearers of our Lord appear to have understood that 
he spoke in a figure, for their amazement was not at 
his calling himself bread, but at his declaring that 
he had come down from heaven. " The Jews then 
murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread 
which came down from heaven. And they said, is 
not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and 



116 



GUIDE TO AN 



mother we know ? How is it, then, that he saith, 
I came down from heaven ?"* It was not the pur- 
pose of our blessed Lord to indulge the worldly 
spirit in which doubts of this nature were proposed. 
He re-asserted his former expression, enforcing the 
necessity, and setting forth the advantage, of be- 
lieving in him, and, as his discourse advanced, em- 
ployed more forcible expressions, until what he had 
generally named as bread at the commencement of 
his address he declared, more explicitly, to be his 
flesh. " The bread which I will give is my flesh, 
which I will give for the life of the world." f 

A new subject of astonishment was now before 
the multitude. When Jesus declared himself to be 
bread, they appeared cajDable of understanding how 
such an expression could be received, and were per- 
plexed only in the endeavour to reconcile his descent 
from heaven with the humility of his condition. 
But when, instead of gratifying their curiosity, the 
Lord reasserted, in still more forcible terms, what he 
had already declared, and taught that the bread 
which he should offer was his flesh, which he would 
give for the life of the world, the perplexity of his 
hearers increased, a new cause of amazement super- 
adding horror, and it may be disgust, to the difficulty 
Iby which they had previously been embarrassed. 
The difficulty and the horror prevailed, and " many 
of his disciples went back, and walked no more with 
him." 

At that time, there were standing near our Lord, 



s St. John, c. vi. v. 41, 42. f Ibid « v - 5L 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



117 



some to whom he had given the privilege, that, while 
others were addressed in parables, they should be 
taught to know the mysteries of the kingdom of 
God.* An occasion now offered itself, on which 
they were justified in hoping that this their high 
privilege would not be denied them. They had, on 
a former occasion, directly solicited the Lord to ex- 
plain what they could not understand ; but, hav- 
ing received his promise, they could now await, 
with dutiful patience, its fulfilment. Nor was it 
long delayed. "It is the spirit that quickeneth — 
the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I speak 
to you, they are spirit, and they are life." Thus he 
spoke, after having previously expressed himself in 
a manner which encreased the difficulty of under- 
standing his original declaration. " Doth this offend 
you? What and if ye shall see the Son of Man 
ascend up where he was before." Having by this 
question suggested to their minds the natural impos- 
sibility of fulfilling literally that part of his discourse 
which had occasioned alarm, he declares that the 
flesh profiteth nothing, that the spirit quickeneth, 
and that the words he spoke were spirit and were 
life — thus, it is reasonable to conclude, giving to ail 
the preceding portion of his address, a figurative 
and spiritual interpretation. 

There are some controversialists in the service of 
the Church of Rome, so resolute, that they dispute 
this conclusion, and, by the simple expedient of in- 
sisting that our Lord's explanation must be figura- 



* St. Luke, 8—10. 



118 



GUIDE TO AN 



tively understood, transfer to the parable which was 
to be explained, the more direct authority of the 
" letter." Thus, they say, " flesh profiteth nothing" 
means no more than that it is worthless, if separated 
from spirit — that it was not, as the Jews may have ima- 
gined, to be eaten in a fleshly form, or (in the words 
of various polemics) " as flesh from the shambles," — 
but that the benefit of true participation of Christ's 
substantial flesh is taught in the former part of the 
discourse, and is not rescinded here. Let it be 
borne in mind, that no one of the limitations and 
conditions by which this reconciliation is said to be 
effected, is found in the words of Christ, or deducible 
from them. He does not say, that it is only under 
certain circumstances his flesh is profitless. Having 
previously said, that they must eat his flesh — he 
teaches them, that literally to comply with the pre- 
cept would be impossible, because he shall in the 
body be withdrawn— and unnecessary, because " the 
flesh profiteth nothing ;" words which could not, 
with propriety, be spoken, if, under any circum- 
stances, literally to eat of his flesh and drink of his 
blood could be profitable. 

Let any who hesitate still, reflect for a moment 
what they would say, if a passage equally clear were 
to be adduced, in which the advantages of believing 
were denied. Imagine a passage like the following 
to be found in scripture — " Does it offend you that 
eternal life was promised to those who believe in 
Christ? What and if ye shall see Christ himself 



*■ St. John, vi. 63. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



119 



put to an ignominious death — belief profiteth nothing. 
It is the body of the Lord given in the eucharist by 
which souls are saved." Would he be accounted of 
sane mind who should attempt to vindicate the effi- 
cacy of faith, or to reconcile the expressions, " He 
that believeth in me shall live — belief profiteth no- 
thing" — by any such contrivances as have been 
adopted by Romish controversialists ? No disputants 
would more triumphantly expose the disingenuous- 
ness of such a procedure than those who strive now 
to procure respect for it. But there is no expression 
by which the promise given to faith is invalidated. 
On the contrary, one sentence, the concluding one 
of this part of the address, " But there are some of 
you that believe not," * constrains us to feel that the 
importance of faith, as the means whereby life is 
imparted, is never lost sight of through our blessed 
Saviour s discourse. 

It is not to be denied that such expressions as to 
eat the flesh of our Lord have been, by some writers, 
accounted too forcible to represent merely a partici- 
pation by faith ; and that adversaries of the Church 
of England, have spoken with much boldness, when 
challenging her ministers to show why terms which 
are, literally, so different in signification, shall be 
employed to denote the same idea. To understand 
the propriety of employing language so very forcible, 
it should be recollected that the doctrine which the 
apostles were to preach, was one the least likely to 
originate in the human mind, (because it is indeed 



* St. John, vi. 64. 



120 



GUIDE TO AN 



the most opposed to the besetting evil of man's 
nature,) and when fully made known and understood, 
the most likely to be effectual ; the doctrine of justi- 
fication by faith. The occasion, on which our Lord 
spoke, furnishes proofs that it was a doctrine which, 
to be guarded from abuse, must be very strongly 
enunciated. A multitude had followed, " not because 
they saw the miracles, but because they did eat of 
the loaves and were filled." Among them were 
many who would " take him by force and make him 
a king," exposing themselves to all the hazards of 
acting as well as speaking against Caesar. These 
people, surely, would profess belief in him. They 
would encounter for his sake, extremity of peril, and 
they would raise him to the throne of Israel. Had 
eternal life been promised simply to belief, all, of the 
character of these men, would have said to their souls 
" take your rest," the lifting up of the cross might 
be a summons to arouse, instead of subduing, all 
the evil passions by which Christ would be dis- 
honored, and those who yielded assent to the truth 
of the gospel history, who did not dispute the divi- 
nity of Christ, or doubt of his atonement, would say 
they believed, although they had, in no respect, 
imbibed the spirit of his example, or been crucified 
to the world in his death. It was necessary to 
designate the momentous truth which Jesus revealed 
by some more solemn character than that of a word 
which, having been applied to profane and trivial 
uses in life, was liable to the peril of misinterpreta- 
tion. The belief, to which a promise was given, was 
not to be the mere reliance of soldiers on their chief, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 121 

but to be an humbling and purifying trust in a Sa- 
viour. 

Self deception is not so practicable when a man 
proposes to himself the question— can I be said to eat 
the flesh of Christ and drink his blood — as when he 
demands — do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
The Jews listened with patience to our Lord's assu- 
rances respecting belief in him. They doubted 
only when he spoke of descending from heaven, 
but, in all probability, received with much compla- 
cency the promises annexed to faith. When he 
represented belief, however, under that very striking 
figure, in which, members of the Church of Rome 
should recollect, Augustine discerned a precept " to 
communicate in the passion of the Lord, and with 
delight and profit to lay up in our memories, that 
his flesh was wounded and crucified for our sakes," 
and in which even those not prepared for such in- 
struction, might have discerned the recommendation 
of a principle which should influence the heart by 
love, they murmured among themselves saying, 
how can this man give us his flesh to eat. Accord- 
ing to the characters of men, different reasons may 
be assigned why they cannot understand religious 
truth conveyed in figurative language. In some, the 
difficulty may arise from slowness of the imagina- 
tion; in some it may proceed from the torpor of 
their spiritual affections. The apostles were distur- 
bed because of the former of these reasons ; the gene- 
ral multitude for both. Where spiritual faculties 
have been unexercised, all communications of know- 
ledge are referred to a principle which arrogantly 



122 



GUIDE TO AN 



rejects what it is incapable of comprehending ; but, 
where feelings belonging to a better nature have 
been, however faintly, experienced, they dispose the 
mind to believe that truth may be contained in ex- 
pressions which, because of the defects of intellect or 
education, are not thoroughly understood, but which 
their author, in his own good time, will satisfactorily 
elucidate. The character of the individuals, whom 
our Lord addressed, may be seen in the manner in 
which they received his declarations. Some departed 
and walked no more with him when they heard what 
their carnal nature could not understand. Some 
remained, and, when the explanation was vouchsafed, 
which their own faculties could not supply, were 
prepared by the consciousness within them to ac- 
knowledge that their master s precept was holy and 
true. Such is the inference we should, of ourselves, 
have drawn ; but the Scriptures have not left a truth 
of such moment to inference. They teach us what 
was the acceptation in which the apostles received 
the Lord's instructions. They teach us, also, how 
differently they understood the declaration that " the 
flesh profiteth nothing," from that vague sense by 
which, in modern times, its force has been evaded ; 
when they declared, that they remained with Christ, 
not assigning as the reason for their decision, that he 
was to give them his flesh or the substance of his 
flesh, but, because, he possessed what he had previ- 
ously taught them to value, " the words of everlast- 
ing life." 

The expressions, to eat and drink, have been ac- 
counted too gross to represent or figure spiritual 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



123 



operations ; but not by those who have felt what it is 
to have all the faculties of the soul fixed upon the 
thought of Christ and his passion. Even for such 
as have not this testimony, the Scriptures have pro- 
vided, as there had previously been provided, because 
of other wants, for the apostles, assurance to the con- 
trary. " I have meat to eat that ye know not of, 
said the Lord." My meat is to do the will of my 
father which is in heaven.* When our Saviour 
spoke these words, his apostles at first imagined, 
that they denoted bodily sustenance, but when the 
second expression explained the sense in which the 
former should be received, they understood how 
spiritual things might be designated by words which, 
literally, denoted what was bodily, and they were 
thus prepared to understand the figure which Christ 
afterwards explained to them. 

Therefore, when, " in the same night that he was 
betrayed," the Lord instituted the holy sacrament, no 
murmurs or questionings arose respecting the new 
commandment. Peter, who, when Christ spoke of 
his death, rebuked him, saying, be it far from thee 
Lord, who withstood the voice from heaven, direct- 
ing him to slay and eat — was now silent, although 
ordered to infringe one of the most solemn enact- 
ments of the law. James was silent, who gave his 
council at the assembly in Jerusalem that the people 
should abstain from blood. Thomas, who declared 
that he would not believe in the resurrection of 
Christ from the dead, unless he saw the print of the 



* St. John, iv. 32-34. 



124 



GUIDE TO AN 



wounds in his hands and feet, and whom the Lord Je- 
sus condescended to satisfy, for his and our certainty, 
by the proof he demanded ; (although the Church of 
Rome would have us imagine that the disciple who 
would not believe in Christ's risen body, unless his 
senses were thus convinced, believed nevertheless 
that he had the power to produce at his own word 
that very body and enclose it in a wafer,) Thomas — 
the incredulous Thomas — was silent ; and disci- 
ples who looked upon the tasting of blood as the 
meriting death, all drank of the cup which Jesus of- 
fered to them. If they believed that the precept was 
figurative, that it denoted a spiritual participation, 
all is natural and consistent. If they thought the 
wards literal, their obedience and the manner of it 
surpasses comprehension. 

It would be very easy to show, by abundant 
proofs from scripture that the apostles had not, and 
could not have had any notion at all analogous to 
that which the Church of Rome holds respecting 
the presence of Christ in his sacrament. Of this 
the reader can satisfy himself by considering the 
expectations the disciples were taught to entertain of 
their blessed master's second coming in the body, 
which they were always encouraged to believe should 
be visible and glorious, his humiliation having ended 
with the death upon the cross. " This same Jesus 
shall so come again in like manner as ye have 
seen him go into heaven." " As the lightning that 
lighteneth from the one part under heaven," &c. 
" If they say he is in the secret chambers" (the 
wafer is a very secret chamber) " go not forth," &c. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 125 

and numberless expressions to the same effect teach 
us how the disciples looked for the coming of their 
divine Master. I shall not dwell upon them, nor 
enlarge an enumeration of passages with which 
every reader is supposed to be acquainted, and 
which he will find aptly corresponding with the doc- 
trine of the three Creeds. I shall perhaps be more 
profitably occupied in offering a few remarks on a 
portion of St. Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, from 
which other defenders of the Church of Rome, as 
well as the Irish Gentleman, have imagined that their 
cause could gain succour. 

In the remonstrance which the Apostle addressed 
to the Corinthian Churches, on the irreverence with 
which some of their members attended at the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper, the following expression 
is found — " For he that eateth and drinketh unwor- 
thily, eateth and drinketh condemnation to himself, 
not discerning the Lord's body."* On these con- 
cluding words an argument is reared up, to which, 
for the reasons which always make small things of 
consequence, importance is attached. How, it is 
asked, could men discern a body which was not 
there ? We might content ourselves with asking, in 
reply — does the Church of Rome maintain that the 
body, which, she says, is in the sacrament, can be 
discerned ? Should she say, as has been said, it can 
be discerned by the eye of faith — she is speaking 
altogether a figurative language, and, by her own 
example, authorizing us to understand figuratively 



* 1 Cor. xi. 29 



126 



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the terms on which her argument has been founded. 
But the passage supplies us with a better answer 
and a fuller explanation. The Apostle answers the 
question which the controversialist proposes, and in 
a manner which renders further reply unnecessary. 
Let the reader compare the words which have been 
supposed to justify or countenance the Romish doc- 
trine with the verses immediately preceding — from 
the twenty-fifth, inclusive, in the same chapter — and 
say whether further explanation is required. The 
twenty-fifth is, " For as often as ye eat this bread 
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till 
he come" This is followed by " Wherefore, who- 
soever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the 
Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and 
blood of the Lord." * The guilt of insult to the body 
and blood of the Lord is made known in the preced- 
ing verse, as the word, which connects the two verses, 
renders evident. The offence against the Lord's 
body and blood is unworthily communicating in the 
sacrament which " shows the Lord's death" When 
the nature of the offence is further indicated in the 
twenty-ninth verse, under the terms " not discerning 
the Lord's body," can any doubt remain on the mind, 
that these words also are to be referred to the verse 
in which the object of the sacrament is explained. 
The sacrament shows the Lord's death, being a sym- 

* 1 Cor. v. 27. It is said that the authorized version errs in 
using "and." The argument is not affected by a decision in 
favor of "or." Clemens Alex, quotes the passage as in our 
yersion, "and." Lib. Strom. 2. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 127 

bol of his body. The unworthy communicant thinks 
not, (it is to be remembered that the Roman Church 
does not, more than Protestant communions, account 
" discerning" to denote vision of the senses,) as his 
irreverence testifies, of that body or death which he 
professes to commemorate, and he is, accordingly, 
guilty of profanation. 

And now that I have endeavoured to answer the 
question which advocates of the Church of Rome 
propose, may I be permitted to ask a question in 
return. The Apostle says, " As often," &c. " ye 
do show the Lord's death till he come. 1 ' What is the 
meaning of these three words ? Will an ingenuous 
and reflecting adversary dispute the proof they af- 
ford, that while sacraments continue to show forth 
his death, Christ in the body has not come. 

A second question. The Corinthians are accused 
of irreverence in their mode of celebrating the Holy 
Communion. " For in eating every one taketh be- 
fore other, his own supper, and one is hungry and 
another is drunken. What ? have ye not houses to 
eat and to drink in ? or despise ye the Church of 
God, and shame them that have not?" Can any 
reflecting man believe that such irreverence accom- 
panied adoration of the host ? I have heard a ques- 
tion, how it could have come to pass, that the 
Corinthian converts behaved with irreverence to- 
wards the Lord's body ? Various answers may be 
given ; but if it be demanded whether any good was 
secured by such indecorum, we may answer, Yes — 
it leaves upon record an irrefragable testimony 
against that foulest doctrine, which, in the absence, 



128 



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we may say, of the light of Scripture, an enemy 
sowed in the Lord's vineyard.* 

* Johnson's Unbloody Sacrifice is often quoted in the Tra- 
vels, and his authority is called in, as if it favored the doctrine 
of the Church of Rome. To do Mr. Johnston justice, it 
is but fair to say, that he argued most strenuously against tran- 
substantiation ; and in justice to the Church of which he was a 
member, it must be said, that he should never be adduced to 
bear witness to her doctrine. One circumstance will be suffi- 
cient to show how little he could be relied on, and how far the 
passion of theory carried him from truth. He translates 1 Tim. 
vi. 12, " Thou hast made the good oblation." Where could 
an author fail to discover arguments in his favor who could find 
in « ovskoyixv" an "oblation." 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



129 



CHAPTER IX. 

Transubstantiation compared with our Lord's Incarnation — the 
Trinity — Church of Rome cruel. 

It is not my intention to enter upon any exposition 
or defence of the great and mysterious doctrine of 
the Trinity, but it may not be inexpedient to show 
how little justification is afforded for the efforts which 
have often been made to confound it with the doc- 
trine of the corporeal presence. Our Traveller as- 
signs various reasons why both must share the same 
fate, having the common protection of the same 
champions, and equally exposed to danger of rejec- 
tion. The witnesses for the Trinity, testify also, 
he says, with equal clearness, in favor of transub- 
stantiation ; the influence of " the Secret" spreads 
like mystery over each, and whatever objections the 
reason of educated men can advance against the 
truth of one, will be found, with precisely the same 
force, to take effect upon the other. 

In all these particulars there is great and almost 
unaccountable error. Although Protestants are dis- 
posed to set little value upon any testimony which is 
not in accordance with Scripture, yet have they 



130 



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carefully collected confessions of early Christian 
authors, that they believed, in the great doctrines 
of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and thus have 
left but little excuse to those who argue as if such 
evidences do not exist. To do our Traveller jus- 
tice, however, he does not deny that they have 
been offered; he merely insists, that the same wit- 
nesses have testified also in favor of transubstan- 
tiation. The reader will judge whether the latter 
part of this assertion is correct ; and when he has 
seen, as I trust he has, that the witnesses of early 
days are vindicated from the charge of testifying to 
a doctrine of which they had no knowledge, he will 
allow their evidence to retain whatever authority it 
possessed, when delivered on a truth which revelation 
had made known to them. 

The discipline of the secret by which, it is said, 
the witnesses of the Catholic or Trinitarian doctrine 
were influenced, has furnished another opportunity 
to connect that great fundamental article of a Chris- 
tian's creed with the Roman Catholic dogma res- 
pecting the eucharist. The reader will judge with 
what justice, when he remembers that it had not 
indisposed the world for testifying faith in the 
words of those three great formularies which, until 
the Council of Trent added to them, might have 
been regarded as declaring the belief of the entire 
Church ; nor had it allowed the minds of men to be 
pre-occupied against the decrees of the first four 
councils, in which the articles of the creeds were 
promulgated with authority. The agreement thus 
early manifested in the Christian world, renders the 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. * 131 

argument from " the secret" quite inapplicable. In- 
dependantly of the proof afforded, where only it 
could be' conclusive, in the Scripture ; the testimo- 
nies of the early Fathers, of liturgies, of creeds, of 
councils, are adduced to prove the faith of primitive 
times in the doctrine of the Trinity, and may be 
adduced to prove also, that the faith of these times 
did not comprise belief in transubstantiation. Why 
then should doctrines so differently attested be repre- 
sented as dependant for their proof on similar assu^ 
ranees. 

But, however industrious our Traveller appears in 
his endeavours to impeach the evidence of Christian 
doctrine, by showing that falsehood also has had its 
support, he seems to have been incited to his princi- 
pal effort, by a more pernicious council than would 
advise only the disparagement of human testimony. 
Supposing him to have succeeded in setting aside all 
the witnesses who spoke since the canon of Scrip- 
ture was arranged, he would have done the cause of 
Christian truth but little wrong ; but, if he made it 
evident that any one doctrine revealed in Scripture 
is contradictory to human reason, he would have 
done religion an injury of such a nature as to be 
irreparable. It is a dreadful spirit which possesses 
the Church of Rome. If you do not receive her 
dogmas, her mode of persuasion is a curse, and her 
arguments unholy sophistry to shake your faith in 
God and his promises. Rather than see you receive 
the Gospel from other hands than hers, she would 
have it go to you discredited ; and, in a spirit alien 
from the example of Jesus, and untaught by his pa- 



132 



GUIDE TO AN 



thetic rebuke, her counsel to her teachers is, that 
they call the consuming fire from heaven, and, one 
might almost add, summon up the worst passions of 
earth and hell, to be avenged of any who will not 
receive them with that lowest prostration of the spi- 
rit when it renounces reason. 

In this evil disposition, she has constantly endea- 
voured to place truth in peril by connecting it in the 
minds of her votaries with doctrines against which, 
whenever their reason awakens, they feel disposed to 
remonstrate. Thus, has she acted in her endeavours 
to defame the doctrine of the Trinity, and in the 
effort to prove that the incarnation of our Lord is no 
less contrary to reason than that dogma which she 
seems to guard as the spell on which her power and 
existence are dependant. Our Traveller appears 
rather too ready ; as the following passage will show, 
to countenance her in this method of desperate de- 
fence : 

" CONNEXION BETWEEN THE EUCHARIST AND THE 
MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION. 

" The difficulties, says the Rev. Mr. Rutter, which Protest- 
ants alledge against transubstantiation, are not greater that those 
which the Socinians may and do urge against the incarnation, 
as will appear from the following parallel : 



Protestants reject transubstan- 
tiation. 

1. Because the senses judge 
the host to be mere bread. 

2 Because one body will 
be in two or more places. 



The Socinians may equally 
reject the incarnation. 

1. Because the senses judge 
Christ to be a mere man. 

2. Because one person will 
be in two natures. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



133 



3. Because the same body 
will move, and not move, be 
visible and not visible, mortal 
and immortal, passible and 
impassible. 

4. Because Christ would be 
in the form of a wafer. 

5. Because Christ's body 
would be in a form opposite 
to human nature. 

6. Because Christ's body 
would be eaten by sinners. 

7. How can Christ's body 
be confined in the tabernacle, 
and be also in heaven. 

8. Because it appears ab- 
surd to adore Christ in the 
Sacrament" 



3. Because the same per- 
son will be both God and man, 
visible and not visible, mortal 
and immortal, passible and 
impassible. 

4. Because an immense God 
would be in the form of a sim- 
ple man. 

5. Because God would be 
in a form opposite to the di- 
vine nature. 

6. Because God would be 
crucified by sinners. 

7. How can Christ be con- 
fined in the womb of a virgin, 
and be also in heaven. 

8. Because it appears ab- 
surd to adore him who. was 
born of a woman and after- 



wards crucified by man." 
I trust I may be pardoned for considering one or 
two of these articles somewhat more formally than 
their inherent merit seems to deserve ; especially if 
my remarks are found applicable to more impor- 
tant difficulties than those by which they are occa- 
sioned. 

The first objection both Protestant and Socinian 
(I adopt for the present, Mr. R utters distinction) 
although in form one, in reality consists of two pro- 
positions, thus: 

1. Because the senses judge 1. Because the senses judge 

the host to be bread. Christ to be a man. 

This is the argument of To this Protestants may as- 

Protestants. sent. 

but, the second part of the proposition : 

The senses judge the Host Christ to be nothing but 
to be nothing but bread. man. 



134 



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rests rather on Mr. Rutter's authority, than on the 
support it is likely to obtain from either Protestant or 
Socinian. Protestants do not affirm from the testimony 
of the senses that the host is mere bread, or nothing 
but bread. They do not account the evidence of the 
senses worthy of respect in a case where they are not 
competent to judge. In fact, they will not admit, that 
whatsoever does not manifest itself to the senses, 
is thereby proved to have no existence, and there- 
fore, in their argument from sense, they confine 
themselves to the assertion, that the bread is proved 
to have a real existence, against the decree of Trent 
which asserts that the substance of bread has passed 
away. If there be Socinians who extend the argu- 
ment further, and assume that the senses contradict 
the existence of that which they cannot discern, they 
may be indulged, without envy, in the credit of a 
very original but not very plausible sophism. Pro- 
testants, however, who account such reasoning, fool- 
ishness, should not be charged with having em- 
ployed it. 

In the second Socinian objection, it can scarcely 
be imagined, that any who recognize two natures 
in the person of a man can be found to concur, 
whilst all will admit the absurdity of supposing body 
to fill, in the same instant of time, two places dis- 
tinct and remote from each other. 

The 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th objections may be re- 
moved by the application of a principle which recog- 
nises the distinction between body and spirit. Ex- 
perience and reason testify to us, that the one is 
limited by conditions which, in no degree, circum- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 135 

scribe the other. Spirit we know in thought ; body 
in its passive qualities ; reasonings respecting each, 
must, of course, differ as the nature to which the 
reasoning is applied. It is conceivable, that spirit 
may asume to itself forms varying to a degree of 
which body is not capable. God may set body free 
from the laws and conditions of its being, but then 
it would cease to be body. If it were asserted, that 
the spirit of the Lord Jesus had so united itself to 
matter as to make a wafer its body, the assertion 
would amaze all thinking men; but it is easy to 
judge, how greatly the difficulty of believing is en- 
creased, when it is affirmed, that what was a wafer 
a moment since has vanished, and that what now oc- 
cupies its very contracted space, is the body which 
suffered on the cross. The popular reply of Roman 
Catholics is ; all things are possible with God. Yes, — 
He can do all things ; but when he causes the same 
body to be in the same instant of time, in Dublin 
and Madrid, he has freed it from the laws which 
affect material natures and rendered its being and 
presence spiritual. 

The sixth objection, which the Socinian is sup- 
posed to urge, arises from the seeming unsuitable- 
ness of the sacrifice of the cross. Whatever consi- 
deration such an objection may merit (and it has 
been amply considered and abundantly refuted) 
nothing but that promptness to find resemblance in 
dissimilitude, to which differences do not appear, 
could account for its being confounded with an ob- 
jection of a totally different nature. Protestants 
have faith in the death upon the cross which they 



136 



GUIDE TO AN 



regard as the appointed and suitable termination of 
the life of humiliation in which Christ came to save 
the world, and they believe, that, now, when all is 
finished, death hath no more dominion over the Lord 
of life, nor is indignity again to be offered him. As to 
the Socinian objection, it is, in all probability, in ac- 
cordance with an opinion which all would entertain, 
if the Scriptures had not taught, that thus it might 
be ; but there are no reflecting men, (with probably 
the exception of the Rev. Mr. Rutter and the Irish 
Gentleman) who would think it the same thing, to 
assert, that, every day, Christ was eaten by sinners, 
and that he died for sin once. In a word, to deny 
the humiliation of Christ, prolonged after his ascen- 
sion into heaven, is very different from denying, 
that he once, for the sins of the whole world, sub- 
mitted to the death upon the cross. 

In the eighth objection, it is alleged, that it seems ab- 
surd to adore one born of a woman, and afterwards cru- 
cified, — as absurd as to adore Christ in the sacrament ; 
that is, to adore what seems a wafer. Nothing can be 
more erroneous. There is no absurdity whatever in the 
thought of adoring a human being who has left a 
divine remembrance behind him. On the contrary, 
the tendency of man so to worship is, perhaps, the 
best known characteristic of his nature. It is unne- 
cessary and unsuitable to the occasion to enlarge on 
this topic, but it is right to add, that the objec- 
tion of Protestants is not grounded on a notion that 
Christ is not to be adored in all places and in all acts 
of devotion, but that that which they hold to be 
bread and wine should not receive divine worship. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 137 

Thus, I trust, it has been shown, that the attempt 
to lessen the influence of truth, by associating it with 
superstition, has manifested rather the zeal than the 
discretion of those who could contemplate so unholy 
an alliance. It was my intention to proceed with 
some remarks on the injury done to the scheme of 
revelation by annexing to it a dogma which, like 
transubstantiation, can only receive assent by the sa- 
crifice of every thing which could give the evidence 
for itself and all other doctrine, authority ; which re- 
quires, that the senses be accounted untrue, while 
their own testimony must be received as unimpeach- 
able, in order to prove their falsehood ; but I have 
found the subject so fully and ably discussed by a 
cotemporary writer, that I feel I am consulting best 
for my reader by transcribing a few lines from his ob- 
servations. " Should a miracle, ivhich is received 
only upon the evidence of sense, be any sufficient in- 
ducement to receive a doctrine which implies a rejec- 
tion of the evidence of sense ? Is it reasonable to be 
called upon to believe one of our senses in one in- 
stance, in order that we may disbelieve all our senses 
in another instance. Can a proposition be considered 
credible, when we must reject the only evidence upon 
which we admit the premises, before we come to the 
conclusion 9 Upon what evidence am I called upon 
to believe in transubstantiation ? Because a miracle 
has been performed. But why do I believe the mi- 
racle? Because it is evident to my senses. So 
that I am to believe the miracle, because it is agreea- 
able to the testimony of one of my senses, and also 
to believe transubstantiation while it contradicts the 



188 



GUIDE TO AN 



evidence of all my senses. The belief in the miracle 
proves that I trust my senses. The belief in tran- 
substantiation proves that I distrust my senses. So 
that if I have good ground for believing the miracle, 
I have no ground for believing in transubstantiation, 
and if Ihave good ground for believing in transubstan- 
tiation, I have no ground for believing in the miracle. 
To believe in such a doctrine, upon the evidence of 
a miracle, would be neither more nor less than to 
lay the axe to the root of all rational belief what- 
ever. It would be to make the sufficiency of the evi- 
dence of sense the grounds of its insufficiency.*" 

Such is the dogma which is pronounced similar in 
character with the fundamental doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, and for the credibility of which it is at- 
tempted to extort favourable testimonies from writ- 
ings of the wise and free. Nothing but extreme 
haste or inexperience can excuse such misrepresen- 
tations. All reflecting men confess, that, in the pro- 
vince of faith there are revelations above, but stead- 
fastly maintain that there can be none contrary, to 
reason. Modes of existence of the spiritual and infi- 
nite surpass our comprehension ; but doctrines res- 
pecting " body" (a substance which sense can dis- 
cern) opposed to reason, are to be rejected, because 
they would discredit all evidence on which faith 
could rest. 

In fine it should be observed, that the evidences 
offered in proof of the dogma are worthy of it. 
On such testimony no man of sound mind could 

* Observations on the vindication, &c. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



139 



believe any communication of importance ; and no 
man, it may be added, could, on any testimony 
receive the dogma on which it has been offered, " I 
never", said a man of true genius, " could believe 
demonstration, if it contradicted intuition." 



140 



GUIDE TO AN 



CHAPTER X. 

Tradition — Council of Trent, Irenseus, Protestant Doctrine — 
2 Thessalonians. 

The author of the Travels, his readers need scarcely 
be informed, appears to ascribe little authority to 
scripture in deciding questions of faith. The cir- 
cumstances under which he commenced his search, 
and the object he had at heart, render this error the 
more remarkable. He had very gloomy suspicions 
as to the tenets of the Church of Rome and their 
demoralising tendency ; his opinions of the reformed 
principles, known as only they could be to him in 
the characters of his Protestant acquaintances, may 
be judged from the secret desire by which he con- 
fesses himself influenced, that, in some form of 
Protestantism, he should discover the object of his 
search ; yet, strange to say, he formed his decisions 
on the testimonies which members of the Church of 
Rome adduce as in their favour, (but from which 
when unfavourable they dissent) and scarcely con- 
descended to examine that testimony to which all 
sects of the reformed appeal, although not they 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



141 



alone, but their adversaries also, confess that it 
contains no error. 

The disadvantage of this method will be rendered 
apparent by a single consideration. Suppose it 
ascertained that tke doctrines of a Protestant 
Church (let us say the Church of England) could 
not appeal to the testimony of a single uninspired 
writer among the early Christians, but could exhibit 
irrefragable proof that her principles were clearly 
and with authority proclaimed in the Bible, while 
the Church of Rome, without any warrant of 
scripture, was rich in human attestations, would the 
question at issue between the Churches, be decided 
favourably to the institutions which the book of 
God's word disallowed ? An answer is unnecessary. 
No man who professes to believe in a revelation 
would for a moment hesitate to declare, that the 
highest degree of human testimony is altogether 
worthless, if set in manifest opposition to those re- 
cords which are infallibly true. 

How came it to pass that our Traveller adopted a 
course so widely diverging from that which reason 
would recommend, and, under the peculiar circum- 
stances in which he chose it, so very uninviting. 
I looked, he says, for Protestantism, I could not 
find it. In Tertullian — not there. Basil — he knew 
nothing of it. I have twenty witnesses to prove 
that they were not cognisant of the doctrine held by 
Protestants, and I will not seek their principles in the 
Bible, on which all profess to believe their doctrines 
founded, nor study that Gospel, which amidst all 



142 



GUIDE TO AN 



diversities of opinion, it is the profession or the boast 
of every sect, faithfully to preach and interpret. 

It would not be an easy matter to reconcile this 
disregard of Scripture with sincerity of purpose, if 
we had not been instructed, that the Irish Gentle- 
man was, if not educated, brought up in the disci- 
pline of the Church of Rome, and, although there 
are cases in which the native vigor of the under- 
standing manifests, in the sentiments and conduct 
of individuals not yet set free from thraldom, an 
independent spirit very impatient of fetters, there 
have also been men of ability and even genius, 
on whose minds submission has wrought a habit 
of obedience, such as will not suffer, even by a 
question, or a thought, the slightest disparage- 
ment to authority. It is most natural that Roman 
Catholics of little reflection shall not feel that 
deep and exclusive reverence for the Bible which 
causes Protestants, with unceasing attention, to 
lay up its instructions in their hearts. It is to 
Protestants the sole rule of faith, so that nothing 
shall be taught as necessary to salvation, save that 
which is contained in God's written word. It is to 
Roman Catholics a book of so little authority that 
they are contented to receive the report of what had 
been spoken nearly two thousand years since, and 
had never been written, as of no less authority. 

It is not, perhaps, just to impute wilful neglect of 
Scripture to one who has been accustomed, from his 
earliest life, to see it connected with, what Protest- 
ants would esteem, a disparaging association, but it 
brings more deeply before us the necessity of en- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



143 



1 quiring into the truth of that doctrine, in which the 
insufficiency of the written word is asserted. 

It was at the Council of Trent, that, for the first 

1 time, tradition was raised to the high honor of hold- 
ing divided empire with the Holy Scripture. After 
long debate and much expressed difference of opi- 
nion, it was decided that the purity of Evangelical 
truth was contained in the Scriptures, " and in un- 
written traditions, which, received from the lips of 

i Christ by his apostles, or from the apostles them- 
selves, the Holy Spirit speaking in them, have come 
down to us delivered, as it were, from hand to hand" 
— " quasi per manus traditae." An anathema was 
annexed to this decree, pronounced against all who 
would not admit as canonical the Trent enumeration 
of the books of Scripture, or who should knowingly 
(sciens & prudens) contemn the aforesaid tradi- 
tions, having previously declared that this species of 
testimony " shall be received and reverenced with 
equal affection of piety" as God's written word. 

The art with which the Council of Trent has 
drawn up its decrees has never been sufficiently 
applauded. Even where they seem most distinct 
and peremptory, you can discern, after you have 
for a short time reflected upon them, that there is 
a meaning for the judgment different from that which 
first meets the eye, and, in various instances, you 
find, in language which seems to breathe all the 
spirit of the Roman Church, ample provision for 
Protestantism. In this decree, especially, respect- 



* Cone. Trid Sess. 4. 



144 



GUIDE TO AN 



ing tradition, it is difficult to believe that the lan- 
guage in which it is expressed should not have been 
carefully studied, and intended, at the same time, to 
awe the superficial by the pretence of a two-fold 
rule of faith, and to provide assurance for the re- 
flecting, that the authority of Scripture is undivided. 
The reader shall judge. The decree first pronounces 
the decision of the council, that the words of Christ 
and his apostles — the dictates of the Spirit which 
have been preserved in writing and by unwritten 
tradition are of equal authority — it proceeds next to 
recite the names of the books of Scripture which 
shall be accounted canonical, and pronounces an 
anathema against whosoever shall dispute the judg- 
ment of the council respecting them or who shall 
(sciens & prudens) despise the aforesaid traditions — 
that is to say, who shall despise words which he 
knows to have been spoken by Christ or his apostles. 
Can it be supposed, that the omission on the part of 
the council to give assistance in determining what 
these traditions are, could have been accidental ? 
Surely the mere circumstance of enumerating the 
books of Scripture would have suggested the neces- 
sity of similar carefulness respecting the " traditions." 
It is expressly stated that the scriptural enumeration 
is made, " least any doubt should arise what are the 
books which are received by the council." If tradi- 
tions are to be had in equal honor, they must have 
been held worthy of a similar protection. What is 
then to be understood from their not having obtained 
it? Either that the divines, assembled at Trent, 
designed to render their anathema imperative, or 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



145 



that they were overruled by a power which defeated 
their purpose and marked their proceedings with 
inconsistency. 

In truth, there is no Protestant who could not 
subscribe to all that part of the decree respecting 
tradition with which any, except its framers, are 
concerned. They may deny that evangelical truth is 
divided between Scripture and unwritten testimo- 
nies ; they may affirm that whatever God requires 
of us to believe, he commanded to be written for 
our instruction ; they may pronounce a strong cen- 
sure on those who could leave dependent on preca- 
rious preservation, doctrines of faith which they 
should have committed to the sure custody of writ- 
ten records ; and yet, if they are persuaded that 
there is a divine truth which is not contained in 
Scripture, but which, on satisfactory evidence, they 
are persuaded to believe Christ or his inspired disci- 
ples had spoken, they will not, because of the nature 
of the transmission, account the truth as of less im- 
portance and authority : that it had a divine author 
will satisfy them that it is to be received, even 
though they find it difficult to understand why it has 
not been more carefully guarded. 

Where, then, are those traditions to be found, 
which dispute authority with Scripture ? By what 
characters shall we recognize them ? Where are the 
evidences of their preservation ? What are they ? 
The Church of Rome offers no assistance in answer- 
ing. Until the 8th of April, 1546, whatever indi- 
viduals may have thought, the Church of Rome in its 
collective capacity had pronounced no decree, which 

L 



146 



GUIDE TO AN 



exalted tradition to a co-partnership with Scripture* 
In the declaration which, upon that occasion, the 
Council of Trent issued, we are of course to look 
for the doctrine which is affirmed as matter of faith 
respecting the unwritten testimony. That doctrine 
is, that whosoever will not receive, with due respect, 
the words of Christ and his apostles, knowing them 
to be such, simply because the mode of their trans- 
mission has not been by written characters, incurs the 
penalties of excommunication. All, therefore, who 
say, that, if they can be assured of the divine origin 
of an expression, or a doctrine, or a rite, they will 
respect it, whatever the source may be from which 
their knowledge of it has been derived, must be con- 
sidered unhurt by the Trent malediction. Nor can 
they be, on the principles of the Church of Rome, 
accursed, although, at the same time, they affirm 
that Scripture alone contains all things necessary to 
salvation; although they refuse to admit tradition 
into their rule of faith. The Church of Rome has 
not authenticated, by its testimony of approval, any 
one tradition distinct from Scripture. She has left it, 
therefore, to the private judgment of her children to 
ascertain what unwritten testimony should be re- 
ceived ; and, if the judgment of a rational man can- 
not be satisfied that the evidence to prove tradition 
pure, through the lapse of eighteen centuries, is 
of equal authority with that which establishes the 
authenticity of Scripture, he has not knowingly con- 
temned the traditions of the apostles, because he does 
not know, either from the Church of Rome or his 
own enquiries, that, in an unwritten form, any apos- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN, 



147 



tolic tradition exists. He is, in consequence, se- 
cure against ecclesiastical censure. 

But it may be said, that the existence of unwritten 
traditions was affirmed by the Council of Trent. No 
doubt it was said that truth is contained in scrip- 
ture and tradition ; but it was not affirmed that any 
truth was to be learned from the latter, in which the 
written word did not give instruction. It cannot, 
therefore, be ascribed to the Church of Rome as an 
article of faith, that, on the separate and independent 
testimony of unwritten tradition, any doctrine is to 
be received. The contrary, indeed, appears to be 
very fully established, as may be understood from 
the following statement. In its third session, the 
Council of Trent thought it proper to set forth a 
confession of faith, " following the example of the 
Fathers, who in former councils were wont, by such 
professions, to confound heretics, to attract infidels 
to the faith, and confirm the faithful." The confes- 
sion of faith thus made and ratified in the council 
was none other than the Nicene Creed, which is 
declared to be u that principle in which all who 
confess the faith of Christ necessarily agree, and the 
firm and only foundation against which the gates of 
hell shall never prevail."* Here, then, we have the 
Summary of doctrine fixed, and as, in this summary, 
there is no article which has not its proof in scrip- 
ture, we are led to conclude, that when, in the first 
decree of the succeeding session, tradition was named, 
authority was claimed for it rather as offering con« 



* Cone. Trid. Sess. & 



148 



GUIDE TO AN 



current testimony to the truths which scripture 
taught, than as furnishing separate and independent 
evidence, whereby additional doctrines were, or 
might be, authenticated. 

If there be Roman Catholics who deny this inter- 
pretation of the Trent decree, it is for them to dis- 
cover what those traditions are which all men are 
bound to honor, and to vindicate their Church and 
themselves from the charge of lessening the authority 
of scripture, by a declaration that it is of but partial 
use, and of disturbing men's minds by proposing a 
standard of faith consisting of two parts, one of which 
they fully and minutely profess to describe, and 
another which they do not describe, and to the disco- 
very of which they do not offer even the slightest as- 
sistance. If tradition establish no doctrine which is not 
founded in scripture, the decree of the Council of Trent 
respecting it, was, it must be confessed, superfluous ; 
but, if it be supposed to convey any truth which the 
Bible has not taught, it is worse than superfluous, it 
is criminal, in neglecting to discriminate between the 
real and the spurious, and to settle by an authorita- 
tive declaration, not alone the canonical books of 
scripture, but also, what shall be regarded as the 
canonical traditions. 

When the only document, having authority, in 
which the Church of Rome seems to claim for un- 
written tradition an undue respect, is thus clearly 
shown to have advanced no such pretension, it may 
be thought a very uncalled for labor to offer further 
argument in defence of the sovereignty of scripture. 
Public opinion, however, among Roman Catholics, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 149 

has stripped it so of the supremacy which is its 
due, and has so long contemplated it as of merely 
Consular authority, that a few words more may not 
be quite out of season ; especially as they are sug- 
gested by selections which the author of the Travels 
has made from early writers, and which, being the 
extracts chosen to be adduced in favor of giving 
honor to the unwritten word, may, without any 
great stretch of invention, be received as the pas- 
sages in which, tradition being mentioned, there is 
least spoken against it. 

The testimony of Irenaeus is that upon which the 
Irish Gentleman chiefly relies, and to which he 
affirms " double weight" should be ascribed, ' 6 inas- 
much as he not only asserts in all his writings, the 
high authority of tradition, but was himself one of 
the earliest and brightest links in that chain of oral 
delivery which has descended to the Church of 
Rome from the apostolic age." * It can hardly be 
thought necessary to remark, that, in order to render 
the testimony of Irenaeus available at the present 
day, it should contain something more than a bare 
recognition of traditions received by him and his 
cotemporaries. We may, therefore, pass by his 
account of Polycarp's preaching, of which, he says, 
having heard it in youth, he can never lose the re- 
membrance. Indeed, perhaps it is not perfectly 
right, (although it may be tedious, as it is true, to 
speak it,) not to observe, that the reasons assigned 
by Irenaeus for remembering Polycarp's discourses, 



* Travels, Vol. I. p. 35. 



150 



GUIDE TO AN 



discountenance the doctrine of tradition. He re- 
membered, because all the associations by which the 
memory of early youth is most affected, lent their 
aid to give permanency to the first impressions. 
" I can tell the place in which the blessed Poly carp 
sat and taught, and his going out and coming in; 
and the manner of his life, and the form of his 
person "f it was, therefore, not a marvel that he 
should remember discourses recalled often to the 
mind by such remembrances — revived, too, fre- 
quently, by the scriptures, to which he declares 
the discourses were conformable ; J and it will not 
create much debate to affirm, that those who re- 
ceived reports of Polycarp's discourses from Irenaeus 
would be more likely to retain a fresh remembrance 
of what the narrator, in his own person, addressed 
to them, than of the reports they received from him 
of his predecessor. In truth, the alteration which 
stories undergo, as they pass " from hand to hand/' 
renders it scarcely necessary to say, that an argu- 
ment which should prove Irenaeus, living in the 
second century, a competent witness to the words of 
one whom he had intimately known, might not be 
effectual to establish the perfect fidelity of every link 
in the chain of transmission, during the sixteen cen- 
turies which have elapsed since his removal. 

It is not not therefore alone on the fact that 
Irenaeus remembered the countenance and voice of 
Polycarp, our Traveller relies for his persuasion 
that the authority of Tradition and Scripture are 



f Travels, Vol. I. p. 36. { Ibid. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 151 

equal. He quotes from the saint a recommendation 
to Christians that they attend to the instructions of 
their pastors, an assurance that while " the tongues 
of nations vary, the virtue of tradition is one and 
the same every where," and, in fine, he recites 
as though it were decisive, the following remark- 
able passage, " Supposing the apostles had not left 
us the Scriptures ought we not still to have fol- 
lowed the ordinance of tradition, which they con- 
signed to those to whom they consigned the 
Churches? It is this ordinance of tradition which 
many nations of barbarians, believing in Christ, fol- 
low without the use of letters or ink."* And thus 
the Irish Gentleman concludes his search, satisfied 
that he has discovered the Romish doctrine of tra- 
dition. The argument is of a novel kind. If the 
apostles had not left us the Scriptures we ought 
to follow tradition. But they have left us the Scrip- 
tures, therefore we ought to follow tradition still. 
Again ; there were barbarians in the second cen- 
tury, who not having the knowledge by which they 
could commit their religious doctrine to writing, ad- 
hered to the instruction communicated by a then 
recent tradition ; therefore, the nations of the nine- 
teenth century, rich in the knowledge and arts of a 
very refined age, are to pay to a tradition eighteen 
hundred years old, the same respect which barba- 
rians, unacquainted with letters, yielded to traditions 
which their fathers had told them and of whose truth 
they had the most convincing testimony. 



* Travels, Vol. I. p. 37. 



152 



GUIDE TO AN 



But what were those traditions in which the bar- 
barians were instructed? Had the author of the 
Travels been equally communicative with the writer 
whose sentiments he thought he was reporting, he 
would not have left it necessary for any individual 
(not a member of the Church of Rome) to add a 
single remark to the very unequivocal testimony he 
had been the honoured instrument to produce in 
favour of Protestant doctrine. But, indeed, it is not 
now we are to learn, that all advocates of the 
traditionary creeds discontinue their testimonies just 
when they are about to become important, breaking 
off always in the moment most interesting, and 
leaving to others the disagreeable office of piecing 
out their imperfect attestations. How then does 
Irenaeus continue the picture of which our Traveller 
has exhibited a very inadequate representation? 
After mentioning the belief of certain barbarians 
in the ancient tradition, he proceeds to describe the 
tradition and the belief — " believing in one God, 
the Maker of heaven and earth, and all things 
therein, by Christ Jesus the son of God, who, out 
of his most eminent love to the creature, vouchsafed 
to be born of a virgin, uniting man to God by 
himself, suffering under Pontius Pilate, rising again, 
and being illustriously received into glory, he shall 
come again the Saviour of those that are saved, the 
judge of those that are judged, sending into eternal 
fire, the misrepresenters of truth and the despisers of 
his father and of his coming,"* &c. " Thus by that 



* Iren. Adv. Haer. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



153 



old tradition of the Apostles they reject the counsel 
of Heretics." Is there any doctrine here which is 
not contained in Scripture ? Surely no member of 
the Church of Rome will affirm that there is. 
What is the case, then ? — Irenaeus declares, that if 
the Apostles had not left us a written testimony we 
should content ourselves with the unwritten ; as a 
certain class of barbarians who knew not letters, 
received, through tradition, the main articles of the 
Apostles Creed, but no article which was not recom- 
mended by Scriptural testimony. Who could argue 
from this, that a people not unacquainted with the 
characters in which recorded evidence is preserved, 
and not left without the holy Scripture, must never- 
theless profess their belief that there are testimonies 
unproved, unnamed, which they are to elevate into 
importance, not that, by their aid, the written evi- 
dence may be illustrated, but that, if I may be 
allowed so humbling an allusion, for want of their 
endorsement or acceptance, the Scriptures shall be 
dishonoured. 

It may be a question with some, why Irenaeus, 
who could have appealed to Scripture, should yet 
have made so honourable reference to other species of 
evidence. He did so, because the heretics against 
whom he contended, denied the authority of the 
Sacred Volume, pretending that God would vouch- 
safe another Gospel, and that, in his private confer- 
ences with the disciples, our Lord had frequently com- 
municated truths of more moment than those recorded 
in Scripture, " W T hen," Irenaeus writes, " they are 



154 



GUIDE TO AN 



confuted by the written word, they assail the holy 
Scriptures themselves, as if they were not of autho- 
rity, because they are variously expressed (varie 
sunt dicta?) and because truth cannot be discovered 
in them by those who are unacquainted with tra- 
dition, for, that they were delivered not in writ- 
ing, but viva voce, as St. Paul, we speak wisdom 
among the perfect, and this wisdom they, each of 
them, say they have discovered.''* This is the lan- 
guage, this the argument which Irenaeus imputes 
to the Heretics of his day, and thus he was con- 
strained to adopt that mode of proof by which, 
although it was not the best, he was enabled to 
expose their errors. He acted in the same spirit as 
that in which the advocates of Protestant truth now 
show the weakness of their adversaries' cause, illus- 
trating their reasonings by extracts from the works 
of the Fathers, not because they hold these works in 
too exalted honor, but simply, because they contain 
the testimonies to which the Church of Rome most 
earnestly appeals, and by which, accordingly, she, or 
at least some among her members may be most 
effectually brought to see the errors of the system 
they are upholding. 

Our Traveller, although he does not seem to have 
made account of his knowledge, was not altogether 
unacquainted with the facts of the subject on which 
he was writing. He was aware f that the Valen- 
tinians were the heretics to whom, or against whom, 
the remonstrances he has quoted from Irenaeus 



* Iren. Adv. Hser. Lib. 3-2. f Travels, Vol. I. p. 35. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 155 

were applied. He was aware of the source in which 
the errors of the Valentinians originated, and he 
knew it to be a dependance on unwritten tradition* 
" Such was the fanciful account given by Valen- 
tinus," " such the wild tissue of fiction which its 
inventor boasted to have derived from the secret 
communications of Christ himself to his apostles"* 
It is somewhat strange, that, after having found the 
foulest heresy thus originating in tradition, the Irish 
Gentleman had not corrected his very erroneous 
notions respecting the passages he quoted from Ire- 
naeus, and been protected against the mortification 
he may hereafter feel, should he come to the know- 
ledge of the deception he has, innocently, attempted 
to practice on his readers. 

I pass from the Travels and the Fathers, to notice 
one citation by which controversialists, in modern 
times, have endeavoured to extort from Scripture 
itself, a recommendation of the rival authority. St. 
Paul had written, in his second epistle to the Thes- 
salonians, " Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold 
the traditions which ye have been taught, whether 
by word or by epistle ;" f and it is confidently ar- 
gued that the injunction which the Apostle lays on 
the Thessalonians, that they preserve tradition, is 
tantamount to a precept by which he would enjoin 
all Christian people (eighteen hundred years later 
than the day in which he wrote,) to receive the 
doctrine held respecting unwritten testimony by the 
Church which proclaims herself its depository. 



* Travels, Vol. L p. 243. f 2 Thess. ii. 15. 



156 



GUIDE TO AN 



Surely, if she has not preserved the very tradition 
of which the Apostle so earnestly recommended a 
careful keeping, she ought to be more guarded in 
the doctrine she teaches, and more modest in setting 
forth her pretensions. Yet so it is, that while she 
confesses this most valued tradition to have been lost, 
and assigns no justification or excuse for her failure 
in duty, she pronounces, with as much confidence as 
if she had been faithful, that she has sovereign domi- 
nion over unwritten tradition ; and, although she will 
not declare what it is, requires, of all her votaries, a 
promise to receive it. Yes ; the Church which thus 
confesses her neglect in a matter of the deepest im- 
portance, claims the benefit of a repaired infallibility, 
and demands to be believed again. She acknow- 
ledges that she has not been faithful to the apostolic 
injunction, and yet insists on being regarded, not- 
withstanding the lapse, as unimpeached and impec- 
cable. 

But is it true that the Church of Rome acknow- 
ledges the loss of those traditions, the object of the 
apostolic precept on which her claims are fouuded ? 
The charge was urged against her by Chillingworth, 
very long since, long enough, surely, to justify our 
demand for a reply, and although she may be well 
pleased to think the argument of that great man for- 
gotten, she cannot say, that by any exercise of rea- 
son or ingenuity on the part of her retainers, it has 
ever been answered or evaded. The case indeed is 
too strong to admit of ordinary defence or " expla- 
nation." In recommending that the traditions be 
preserved, St. Paul, it is undeniable, referred espe- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



157 



cially to those testimonies by which the " man of 
sin" could be discerned, and which, it was not, we 
can understand, safe to communicate in a written form. 
What the Church of Rome pronounces on the sub- 
ject may be collected from certain notes in the Rhei- 
mish Testament, in which, strange to say, in the 
same page, the claim of undiminished confidence is 
found preceding the confession of most unpardona- 
ble insolvency. 

" See here," writes the commentator, " the un- 
written traditions commanded to be kept." 

" Here must be meant some particular person." 

" It may, perhaps, be understood of Mahomet." 

" St. Augustine professeth plainly, that he under- 
standeth not these words, nor that that followeth of 
the mystery of iniquity, and least of all that which 
the apostle addeth, ' only that he which holdeth now 
do hold, which may humble us all, and stay the con- 
fident rashness of these times, namely of heretics,' " 

Well may we ask, what heretics ? Who are 
the most confident and rash ? Who are they who 
declare themselves the guardians of tradition — are 
proved by their own acknowledgment false to the 
solemn trust — and yet, demand and obtain most un- 
grounded confidence to the contradictory assurance, 
that now and ever they have been faithful ? Where 
is the confident rashness to be complained of— in 
those who say the tradition most impressively recom- 
mended to the keeping of a primitive Christian 
Church has been lost — who hold therefore the written 
characters in which the Bible is preserved to afford 
better evidence of doctrine, than the testimony of 



158 



GUIDE TO AN 



remembrances which only a continued miracle could 
preserve, and to which, their acknowledged unfaith- 
fulness, at a very early age, gives proof, that no 
miraculous protection was extended ; — or in the sub- 
missive votaries of the Church of Rome, who say, 
although the only tradition committed expressly, so 
far as we have knowledge, to the keeping of our 
Church, has been lost, we hold her, nevertheless, an 
infallible guardian of tradition; and although we 
know nothing of what it is, or what it teaches, we 
profess ourselves ready to pay it the same honor 
with which Protestants reverence their Bible. 

The "confident rashness of heretics" which the 
Rheimish annotator censures, is of that kind which 
suggests a further remark on the loss of the apostolic 
tradition. The reader will understand that one par- 
ticular in which the condemned precipitancy of he- 
retics betrayed itself, was in the boldness which 
ascribed to the Bishop of Rome those characteristics 
by which the Apostle Paul designated " the man of 
sin." I do not enter here into an enumeration of the 
various minute and important coincidences between 
the history of the Papal chair, and the prophecy 
addressed to the Thessalonians ; but I may observe, 
that no man has ever read the one and the other 
without thinking the correspondence between them 
worthy of deep attention, and that very many wise 
and good men have been persuaded to believe the 
historical narrative an exact fulfilment of the pro- 
phecy. The Church of Rome, of course, denies, 
and even launches a damnatory censure against any 
who gainsay her decision ; but why has she suffered 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 159 

that tradition to be lost by which the dispute could 
be satisfactorily, and with the highest authority, 
decided. She declares that she has the custody of 
tradition — she confesses that the tradition respecting 
the " man of sin" was the testimony by which he 
could infallibly be discovered, and when called on to 
produce the tradition committed to her care, for the 
purpose of determining by its testimony whether 
the pope is " the man of sin who opposeth himself 
against all that is called God and worshipped," her 
answer is — hear it all who would determine where 
confident rashness should be imputed — I cannot pro- 
duce the tradition which described the blasphemer- 
it was lost probably in the fourth, certainly before 
the end of the fifth century. 

I dwell no longer on the subject of tradition. 
Whoever desires full information as to the doctrine 
and the argument upon it, will be repaid for his 
perusal of a tract to which I have already referred 
my readers. For our present purpose, it is sufficient 
briefly to recapitulate the contents of this chapter. 
There is nothing in the writings of the early Fathers 
on tradition which favors the popular doctrine of the 
Church of Rome — there is nothing in creeds or 
councils by which it is affirmed — and there is no 
document in existence from which we can learn 
where approved tradition may be found. What is 
then this unwritten testimony for whose deferred 
appearance Scripture must wait, before its evidence 
can be admitted ? Where does the tradition lurk ? 
How has its preservation been cared for ? Have 
popes and priests with their expiring prayers whis- 



160 



GUIDE TO AN 



pered it to their successors ? Is it a real being which 
can disperse its bodily form upon the viewless winds, 
or lurk within the recesses of Braganza or the Vati- 
can to awe refractory vassals with the menace of its 
forthcoming ? How potent an auxiliary a name may 
be. Since the decree of Trent exalted this abstrac- 
tion into so undue honor, it has not disclosed a 
single unwritten testimony to the world, yet does 
its imaginary existence lend authority to the or- 
der to which its treasures are revealed, and invest 
with a sacred awe the pages of the Missal. Tradi- 
tion is the Egeria of the Romish priesthood. If a 
more ambitious title be advanced in its favor, substi- 
tuting the Breviary for the Bible, it may be regarded 
as the " White Lady" of the house of Rome ; its 
presence revealed only in solitary places, its voice 
faint and uncertain, its form evanescent, its aspect 
in all the lineaments, faintly and capriciously dis- 
cernible, with nothing distinctly visible but the chain 
of argument from which the phantom particles of its 
form gain a semblance that they cohere ; a girdle 
which has been, age after age, wasting ; and which, 
in the vision conjured up by the Irish Gentleman on 
his Travels, appears worn to a thread. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



161 



CHAPTER XI. 

Unbroken Succession — Baronius, Spondanus, Bellarraine — 
Papal Chair — Right of Private Judgment — Gregory Nazia- 
zen, Jerome — Exclusive Salvation — Creed of Pope Pius — 
Council of Trent, Scriptures — Dr. Murray— Dr. Doyle. 

" The history, indeed, of this one (the papal) chair, 
presents in itself," observes the Irish Gentleman, 
" such a phenomenon and marvel as no other form 
of human power, in any age of the world, has paral- 
leled. Through a course of eighteen centuries, 
amidst the constant flux and reflux of the destinies 
of nations — whilst every other part of Europe has 
seen its institutions, time after time, broken up and 
reconstructed — while new races of kings have, like 
pageants, come and disappeared, and England her- 
self has passed successively under the sway of five 
different nations, the apostolic see, the chair of St. 
Peter, has alone defied the vicissitudes of time — has 
remained as a city seated on a mountain, a rallying 
point for the Church of God throughout all time, 
and counting an unbroken succession of pontiffs, 
from its first occupant, St. Peter, down to the present 
hour." * 

* Travels, vol. I. p. 190. 

i 

M 



162 



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If nothing more were implied in the above passage 
than that the bishopric of Rome exceeded, in the 
wealth and temporal dignity ascribed to it, every 
other " episcopal chair," it would not be necessary to 
offer any comment upon it, or to express an acknow- 
ledgment, that the revenues and the political influence 
of many popes were greater than those of "their 
fellows." If wealth be the test of truth, the Church 
of Rome, with perfect justice, could condemn the 
doctrines of the reformation, and of the apostles, 
and fulminate anathemas against all who would 
contend with her for a spiritual possession to which 
she could advance an indisputable, although not a 
spiritual, title. It is quite evident, however, that it 
is not such a title our Traveller would assert for the 
Church to which he has returned. We are, accord- 
ingly, to consider, in the eloquent eulogy he has 
pronounced on the permanency of the papal see, the 
" unbroken succession" of bishops as the chief sub- 
ject of his praise, and the accessories of splendor and 
power with which they were adorned, as incidents 
which served to render their characters and actions 
conspicuous. It is, therefore, to the " succession" 
of the Roman bishops my observations shall be ad- 
dressed ; and my enquiry shall be, not whether they 
were powerful and rich, but whether, in the suppo- 
sition that the " unbroken succession" could be 
proved, it would constitute an argument for the 
superiority of their Church ; and secondly, whether 
the evidence in favor of this argument is of such a 
nature as to bring conviction. 

If the simple fact, that the present Bishop of Rome 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



163 



is the successor, in a direct line, of the first who 
presided in that see, constitute an argument which 
proves the superiority of the Roman over all other 
Churches, it can only be, because no other " epis- 
copal chair" can boast a similar succession. Did 
the " Irish Gentleman" make inquiries to satisfy 
himself, that the honor he ascribes to Rome was 
peculiar to her ? Did he inquire whether the Angli- 
can Church could not supply numerous cases of a 
similar nature? He contrasts the permanency of 
the Roman Church with the frequent changes and 
unsettlements in England — (" while England herself 
has fallen under the sway of five different nations, 
the apostolic chair has defied the vicissitudes of time," 
&c.) — and appears to have forgotten, that although the 
civil polity of the country experienced destruction 
and change, the Church of England " has defied the 
vicissitudes of time," and can appeal to many of her 
cathedral histories, for proofs, that she, too, partici- 
pates in the honor of the unbroken succession. But 
the line of succession in the Church of Rome is more 
extended. Is it to be understood, then, that whatso- 
ever is more ancient is also of greater authority ? If 
this be so, Rome must have been for many centuries 
inferior in dignity to Antioch, and those other sees 
which, she confesses, were erected before Peter es- 
tablished the papacy ; and could only have assumed 
power and authority when the more ancient Churches 
had fallen, and at a period very long subsequent to 
the time at which she boasts that she was mother and 
mistress of all Christian congregations. Perhaps it 
may be said that the honor of a true succession is 



164 



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not to be ascribed to the British Churches, because 
they committed a breach of unity, and introduced 
erroneous doctrines — but the point at issue between 
the papal and the reformed communions is, on whom 
does the guilt of schism rest ; and this, evidently, is 
a matter to be determined, not by the argument of 
" succession," but by a consideration of the changes 
in discipline and doctrine from which schism or se- 
paration had its rise. We may affirm, therefore, 
that the tendency of any claim founded on the regu- 
larity of episcopal succession, cannot be ascertained 
without considering the claims of different Churches, 
and the evidences by which they are respectively 
supported. 

Of all the arguments by which the Church of 
Rome would abet her pretensions, this of the unbro- 
ken succession in the papacy appears the most daring 
and untenable. I am not at all surprised to find it 
occasionally advanced before a select audience, con- 
sisting of a class for which the revisions of an Index 
Expurgatorius are unnecessary ; but, in a work in 
which the topics and the style would lead one to 
apprehend that it is designed for the instruction of 
those to whom history has not been sealed, it seems 
altogether unaccountable, that the desperate expe- 
dient should be adopted, of resting the authority of 
the Roman See on so frail and broken a reed as 
" succession." Who is ignorant of the manner in 
which the papal chair has been frequently and cri- 
minally invaded? Who knows not the species of 
influence to which the sovereign pontiffs often owed 
their election — and the outrage and violence with 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



165 



which, all forms of election being disdained, many 
were forcibly intruded into the see of E ome ? We 
are not left dependant for a knowledge of such events 
on the suspicious testimony of Protestant writers, or 
even on the dubious allegations of those whose at- 
tachment to the Church of Rome was regulated by 
reason. No. We have the complaints of one so 
thoroughly possessed of zeal, that he gravely ad- 
vanced, as argument in proof of Christ's presence 
with the Church, the monstrous vices under which 
it laboured, and which, he conceived, proved its 
existence miraculous — we have his complaints of the 
injustice and violence of various papal usurpations, 
and the expression of his amazement at the difficulty 
of determining in some cases between conflicting 
pretensions. 

The Irish Gentleman appears acquainted with the 
" Annals of Baronius," nor can he doubt the faith- 
fulness of that uncompromising champion of the pa- 
pacy. Will he accept his testimony as to the " suc- 
cession ?" " What was then the aspect of the holy 
Roman Church, how very foul, under the tyranny 
of unchaste women, as powerful as they were de- 
praved, when, at their will, sees were changed, bi- 
shoprics given, and what is of unutterable horror, 
their paramours intruded into the chair of Peter — 
pseudo pontiffs, who should be named in the cata- 
logue of the popes only for the uses of chrono- 
logy ; for who could say that men of such a cha- 
racter, illegally intruded by harlots, were lawful 
Roman Pontiffs. No where is there mention made 
of the clergy electing, or afterwards consenting. 



166 



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The canons were all buried in silence, the decrees 
of popes (or bishops) were stifled, old traditions 
were proscribed, and the ancient customs in electing 
popes, as well as the sacred rites, and primitive 
practice, were all extinguished. Then, surely, Christ 
slept a deep sleep in the bark, and what was most 
to be lamented, there were no disciples to awake 
him." * 

I will not offend my reader, nor endure, myself, 
the disgust of describing the lives or conduct of these 
monsters of iniquity, \ as Baronius calls them, who 
usurped the see of Rome, but shall be contented 
with repeating, on his authority, that during the 
entire of the tenth century, their disorders afflicted 
the Church; and with proposing as a question, 
whether we should recognise here a chasm in the 
succession, or reject the testimony of the Cardinal 
historian. I make no comment on the morals of 
these sacrilegious profligates. I regard simply his- 
torical testimony, of the least suspicious character, 
that, during a century, a system prevailed, whereby 
individuals, who were not Popes, held the Bishopric 
of Rome ; and know no evidence, of equal or of any 
account, which testifies that the " succession" has 
been preserved. 

But the disasters of the " unbroken succession" 
have been still more plainly recorded. In the 
eleventh century, there were three anti-popes, " si- 
multaneous not successive," residing at Rome, and 
dividing the revenues between them. Which of 

* Baronius Ann. 993. f Horrenda quam plurima monstra. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



167 



them, or was any, the Pope ? Let us hear the his- 
torian Spondanus, respecting a schism of later days. 
" Thus was produced, in the Church, a most foul 
and pernicious schism." " Still more marvellous, the 
right of the parties was so dubious and uncertain, 
that not only princes, but also most learned theolo- 
gians and professors of law, as well as men of great- 
est piety were attached to each side. Nay, there 
were numbers, conspicuous for their miraculous 
powers who embraced each cause and called theirs 
holy, the adverse cause profane, nor could that matter 
ever be so determined as not to remain doubtful to 
very many." Such is the candid acknowledgment 
of the papal historian, at least of a historian whose 
attachment to the Church of Rome is beyond ques- 
tion. Did the foul schism he laments leave the line 
of succession unbroken ? The utmost Spondanus is 
able to advance in favor of a cause he would faith- 
fully have supported, is the expression of what is no 
more than a vague opinion. " It seems to have been 
the judgment of the Catholic Church (which ought 
to outweigh all arguments, visions, prophecies, mira- 
cles,) that Urban, and his successors who remained 
at Rome, were true and legitimate pontiffs."* Why 
has an infallible Church left the line of a succession 
depending on a " seems to be." There was a schism 
of fifty years duration, Popes at Avignon and Popes 
at Rome. The phrase " Babylonian captivity," ap- 
plied to a previous removal of the papal chair, testi- 
fies how deeply the calamity had wounded, yet have 



* Spondan, Ann. B. 78. 



168 GUIDE TO AN 

the councils left it a matter of conjecture in what line 
the succession was preserved, or whether in any, 
and " noth withstanding all that has been written on 
the subject it is at this day undetermined, which of 
the two" (Urban 6, or Clement 7,) was the lawful 
pope. 

I shall offer on this part of my subject only one 
quotation more. It is from Bellarmine, whose devo- 

* * %a\<& tedness to the Roman Court and Church has never 
been disputed. After the very straitest of his sect, 
he held opinions respecting the infallibility of the 
pope, which frequently occasioned him inconveni- 
ence and put to the proof his ingenuity and learning. 
" John XXIII." he writes " is accused of most perni- 
cious heresy, for he is said to have denied the future life 
and the resurrection of the flesh. I answer that it is 
not altogether certain and beyond doubt, that John 
XXIII. was a pope, and, therefore, it is not necessary 
to defend him. There were, in his time, three who 
claimed the papal title, Gregory XII. Benedict XIII. 
and John XXIII. nor could it easily be determined 

h y~ which of them was true and lawful pope, since there 
were not wanting to each, (supporters or) patrons 
of the greatest learning."-^ That is to say, there were 
very learned men who thought that neither of the 
three should be accounted a true pope, the champions 
of each holding the adverse parties in disesteem. If 
our traveller had remembered his historical read- 
ing, and applied to the various schisms in the see 
| of Rome, the principle, that wherever there was 
* Grier's Epit. Cone. Gen. p. 212. 
f Bell. De Pont: Lib. 4, C. 14. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



169 



contention between two claimants, there was doubt 
upon each, he would have been, it is probable, less 
peremptory in insisting on the argument of the 
" unbroken succession." 

Although so much scandal was given by the ini- 
quities and the contentions of popes in the middle 
ages, yet it cannot be denied that multitudes, 
(especially, as a partial historian* with much 
naivete, observes, the " remote northerns") reve- 
renced the chair into which, by fraud or violence, or 
by canonical election, the pontiff had been installed ; 
a species of devotedness, which would have occa- 
sioned more amazement, if we were ignorant that 
the extravagancies and wickedness of the human 
heart have sought an exercise and an object, in a 
worship still more frightful and abominable than 
that which was offered to a vicious man. The Irish 
Gentleman appears edified by this prostration of 
man's reason, and eulogises the means which 
"human policy" had devised or adopted, in order 
to effect so desirable an object — " the repression of 
the right of private judgment,"-]- and, " if any 
resisted or dissented, no less awful a penalty than 
the forfeiture of eternal salvation.";): The reader 
who desires fuller information as to the manner in 
in which the Irish Gentleman avows and applauds 
the policy which adopted such modes of guarding 
unity, must consult " the Travels." Here such sen- 
timents are stated as briefly as the requisite clearness 
will allow. 



* Bar. Ann. f Travels, Vol. I. p. 212. \ Ibid. 195. 



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It is necessary, however, to be more precise in 
representing the arguments to which our Traveller 
has had recourse, and it is gratifying to be enabled to 
state, that whatever other errors may have disfigured 
the ancient 6 6 monuments of ecclesiastical literature," 
there seems no reason to suspect that the Fathers of 
the first four centuries had adopted any such policy 
as that by which Rome has maintained her power. 
The reader will judge whether any thing less than 
the utter impossibility of finding more favourable 
testimony can account for the quotation of such pas- 
sages as follow — " Truly," says Gregory of Nazian- 
zum, in speaking of the mischiefs that arose from 
the exercise of private judgment ; " there should 
have been a law among us, whereby (as, among the 
Jews, young men were not allowed to read certain 
books of scripture) not all men, and at all times, 
but certain persons only, and on certain occasions, 
should be permitted to discuss the points of faith." * 
There should have been & law to restrict private 
judgment. Unless our Traveller have the hardi- 
hood of the ready-witted Carthusian, who showed 
among the relics of a convent, the sword that 
Balaam wished for, he must, on reflection discern in 
Gregory's testimony, decisive proof, that in his day, 
the judgment was unfettered. 

The quotation from Jerome places this matter in a 
still clearer light.f In all menial arts there must be 
some one to show the way, the art of understanding 
the Scriptures alone, is open to every reader. Here, 



* Travels, Vol. 1. p. 212. 



f Ibid. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 171 

learned or unlearned, we can all interpret, " the 
tattling old woman, the doting old man, the wily 
sophist, all, all here presume ; they tear texts asun- 
der, and dare to become teachers before they have 
learned." It is very singular that the little prelude 
in which our Traveller introduces this remarkable 
passage, did not suggest to him its character and 
bearing. The expostulation of Jerome furnishes 
abundant proof, that, in his day, the " Commons 
of God's people" had not been closed. Imbecility, 
arrogance, ignorance, were not regarded, then, as 
justifying so monstrous an usurpation. 

Even the apprehensions entertained by Jerome of 
evil consequences likely to arise from the unrestricted 
perusal of God's word, do not appear, great as his in- 
fluence must have been, to have suggested to him the 
idea of procuring or proposing any law of restriction. 
He writes precisely as a protestant would have written, 
who dreaded the exercise of uninstructed faculties 
on the mysteries of Scripture, but who knew, at the 
same time, that there was not, and ought not to be, 
a rule which should deny what God had com- 
manded to be written for his creatures, or give it 
only on conditions incompatible with the exercise of 
reason. In a word, Jerome wrote as a Protestant, 
(some will affirm not a wise one,) in a protestant 
Church, and strange to say, the Irish Gentleman 
seems almost persuaded to believe so. " St. Jerome, 
too, in a passage, whose just sarcasm will be found 
to fit some of the Bible-expounders of the present 
day, as closely as if they had been measured for it, 



172 



V GUIDE TO AN 



thus speaks."* Then follow the expressions already 
quoted, expressions such as have been spoken in 
and at the Protestant Church of the present day, 
as well as in the Church of primitive times, but 
which imply the unrestricted right of private judg- 
ment, and could not, with the least pretence to pro- 
priety, be spoken of his own Church by a presbyter 
of modern Rome. I shall add a single remark, not 
for the necessities of my argument, but in justice to 
the character of the calumniated Jerome. The 
passage in which he is represented as censuring the 
indiscriminate study of the Sacred Volume, is 
extracted from an Epistle, which is throughout from 
the commencement to the conclusion, an exhortation 
to Scriptural studies, an Epistle which " the Bible- 
expounders of the present day" may confess to be 
as eloquent and as earnest an address in favour of the 
great object they have at heart as they have publish- 
ed in the reports of their public meetings. The 
ruling passion of the times is described in the 
sentence which, with his usual success, " the Travel- 
ler" groped out, and is noticed for the purpose of 
explaining why Jerome thought it adviseable to 
further the object he recommends by so various and 
minute instructions. In a word, where the Bible is 
thrown open to all, some may abuse it. The Council 
of Trent and the Irish Gentleman, defender of his 
country's ancient faith,f the defender! — proh 
pudor — of the faith of Sedulius and Claudius, and 
Patrick and Bertram, and Scotus Erigena, would 



Travels, Vol. 1. p. 212. 



f Ibid. Dedication, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 173 

prevent abuse by forbidding all exercise of private 
judgment, Jerome and the protestant Churches, by 
endeavouring to assist and guide it. 

The penalty attached to the crime of exercising 
private judgment, and not submitting implicitly to 
the Church, " was no less awful than the forfeiture 
of eternal salvation ; and however stern and tremen- 
dous such a decree must appear, they who had been 
taught that there was but ' one Lord, one faith, one 
baptism,' and who held, therefore, that he who was 
not in the ark must perish by the deluge, could not, 
with any sincerity, pronounce a more lenient sen- 
tence."* Instead of expressing what the princi- 
ple here confessed, and the praise of it by an Irish 
Gentleman, excites in the mind of the writer, and 
may excite in the reader, I beg attention to the 
peculiar circumstances under which the Church of 
Rome deals forth her thunderbolts, as they are sug- 
gested to the mind by the expression " one faith" in 
the above citation from the " Travels." 

The sixth decree of the Council of Ephesus de- 
clared, " that it should not be lawful to utter, write, 
or compose any other faith than that which had been 
defined by the Nicene Fathers ;f and that, should 
any dare to publish any other creed — if bishops, 
they should be degraded from their bishoprics, 
clerics from their order, and if laics, they should be 
anathematized." The Church of Rome has added 
what may be termed a creed, consisting of twelve 
articles, to this Nicene confession of faith, which had 



* Travels, Vol. h p. 195. f Cone. Gen. Eph. Rom. 1608. 



174 



GUIDE TO AN 



been so carefully guarded ; and instead of shrinking 
from the anathema thus incurred, issues, herself, the 
menace of excommunication against all those who 
will not despise the Council of Ephesus and submit 
to the Council of Trent, consenting to believe, that 
the way of salvation is narrowed by twelve restric- 
tions which the intolerance of modern times has 
erected. A brief consideration of this exercise of 
power may not be unprofitable. 

In the third session of the Council of Trent it was 
esteemed necessary to make a solemn profession of 
faith, and the Nicene Creed was that in which the 
assembled Fathers expressed their belief, introducing 
the recital of it by the following preamble : — 
" Wherefore the symbol of faith which the holy 
Roman Church uses, in which all who profess the 
faith of Christ of necessity agree, the sure and only 
foundation against which the gates of hell shall never 
prevail, in the words in which, in all Churches, it is 
repeated, the Council has thought it proper to recite." 
The Nicene Creed follows. Thus, in the year 1546, 
it was declared by a Pope and Council, that " the 
only sure foundation' was a creed which the Church 
of England, as well as of Rome, professes. In the 
year 1564 the " Creed of Pius the Fourth" is pro- 
mulgated to the world — by which it appears, that 
the declaration of the former year was impious and 
false — that the creed of Nice and England is not a 
sure foundation — and that whoso would be saved 
must enter heaven, branded with the anathema of 
Ephesus, and condemning the third session of the 
Council of Trent — the very council of which espe- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 175 

cially he swears to receive every thing delivered, 
declared, and defined.* Where can such inconsis- 
tency find a parallel ? But, to proceed. 

The first of the articles added to the Nicene Creed 
is a promise to accept, and most firmly retain, all the 
apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, which, it will 
be remembered, have had no stamp of approval set 
upon them, and are accordingly abandoned to the 
caprice of private judgment. The second article is 
a promise to receive also the sacred Scripture, ac- 
cording to that sense in which it is received by " the 
Church, whose it is to judge of the true sense and 
interpretation of the holy Scriptures ; nor will I ever 
receive and interpret it unless according to the una- 
nimous consent of the Fathers." -f Before comment- 
ing on this strait engagement, it is right that we 
compare it with the decree in compliance with which 
it is exacted. " The decree concerning the edition 
and use of the sacred Scriptures," passed in the 
fourth session of the Council, prohibited all inter- 
pretation ' 6 contrary to that sense which the Church 
has held and holds," " or even contrary to the una- 
nimous consent of the Fathers." The decree res- 
tricted liberty of interpretation, if all the Fathers 
were unanimous in opinion ; but the Creed, in the 
true spirit of that ambition which thinks nothing 
gained while aught remains to gain, allows no exer- 
cise of judgment, or right of interpretation, wherever 
any two of the Fathers may have happened to differ. 
The difference between the limitations set in these 



* Creed of Pius IV. Bui. Inj. Nob. f Ibid - BuL &c - 



176 



GUIDE TO AN 



cases will appear by a very obvious instance. Many 
of the Fathers — for example, St. Augustine, Chry- 
sostom, Theophilact — consider the " rock" on which 
our Lord declared he would build his Church to be 
the rock which Peter had named — Christ, the Son of 
God, the Saviour of the world. Other Fathers have 
imagined a sense in which the declaration might 
have been applied to Peter himself, by whom, in 
virtue of the gift of the keys, the " door of faith was 
opened" to the first Gentile convert, Cornelius. Here, 
then, was a portion of Scripture, respecting which 
the Fathers were not unanimous, and which, accord- 
ingly, so long as the Church pronounced no opinion 
on its meaning, the decree left open to private interpre- 
tation. But the Creed is more cautious or more tyran- 
nical, and, as it were, expunges the expression from the 
Bible, because the Fathers have not all had the same 
opinion of its meaning. To obey the decree, it is 
necessary for a votary to say no more than that he 
will not, where all authorities have approved one 
sense, embrace a contrary ; although he retains the 
privilege to choose with whom he shall agree, where 
there is difference of opinion. To profess the creed 
in sincerity, he must add — wherever the Fathers, in 
their freedom, have differed as to the meaning of a 
Scriptural passage, I am to regard them as sentinels 
warning me, that, into that region of Scripture, as if 
pestilence were there, I must not enter. How much 
of the Scripture may be opened or shut according to 
the operation of one or other of these regulations, it 
would be no light matter to determine. If Erasmus 
is to be regarded as governed by such a rule as the 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



177 



decree, he was safe in believing that Christ is the 
foundation of the Church. If the despotism of the 
Creed were to prevail, not only is his condemnation 
pronounced for ascribing due honor to the Lord, but 
the annotators of the Bheimish Testament and their 
abettors, also are damned, for their gloss that the 
Church was builded on Peter. 

But how are the dissenting Fathers to be regarded ? 
According to the Creed of Pius they were all wrong ; 
they were all separated from the Church, and be- 
yond the pale of salvation.* Yet they were not de- 
clared accursed. No ; many of them were styled 
saints, and are solicited as intercessors with God for 
his creatures. What is to be thought ? Was there a 
time when it was not forbidden to study Holy Scrip- 
ture ? Are the limits of this time to be ascertained 
by finding out some point at which men ceased to 
differ in opinion ? Did the old Church continue so 
long as the Bible was open? Did a new Church 
rise in judgement when the Bible became sealed? 
In short, does the Church of Rome pronounce that 
he who shall use the liberty which was enjoyed so 
long as men of reputed sanctity differed in their 
interpretation of Scripture, is, by endeavouring to 
participate in the freedom, and imitate the example 
of the saints to whom he prays, excluded from the 
Church here in earth, and, after this life, consigned 
to everlasting damnation ? 

The superficial may say, that these questions are 

* « This true Catholic faith out of which no one can be saved," 
&c. The conclusion is too well known to need recital. 

N 



178 



GUIDE TO AN 



uncalled for ; that the pious men of all ages — the 
clergy, the learned, are free to study Scripture — that 
it is only from the ignorant among the laity its ful- 
ness of instruction is withheld. Every Roman Ca- 
tholic Bishop is bound even more straitly than the 
meanest of his lay-subjects. He has taken a solemn 
oath that he will observe the articles of that most 
inconsistent creed which pledges him not to receive 
any portion of Scripture in the interpretation of 
which the Fathers were not unanimous, and thus 
taunts his slavery with the astounding intelligence 
that nine parts in ten of the Scriptures, and all the 
Fathers, belong not to the Church in which he is 
fettered, but to the Church where that spirit is 
with whom is liberty. 

There are other inconsistencies in this Creed of 
Pius IV., or of the Council of Trent. The priest- 
hood of the Church of Rome (at least, every priest 
canonically appointed to the care of a parish) has 
sworn not to interpret the Scriptures except accord- 
ing to the unanimous consent of the fathers. The 
obligation thus recognized by an oath on the part of 
the clergy is acknowledged also by the laity of their 
communion.* The Council of Trent found it neces- 
sary to publish a list of the Scriptural Books which 
it accounted canonical. Had there been a Canon of 
the Fathers so fixed and so well known, that it was 

* Lords' Com. March 21, 1825. « Is the Creed of Pius IV. 
the Creed acknowledged in the Irish Roman Catholic Church ?" 
Right Rev. Dr. Doyle. " Yes ; every Catholic acknowledges 
that Creed." 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 179 

unnecessary to enumerate those authorized interpre- 
ters ? No ; there is no such recognition of the tes- 
timonies of ancient witnesses as can enable an en- 
quiring and obedient member of the Church of 
Rome to read the Scriptures with the aid of com- 
mentators whom he knows to have been approved. 
On the contrary, by that strange infatuation which 
so often marks the proceedings of those who think 
infallibility can be lodged in man, the Council of 
Trent has encreased the difficulty of discovering or- 
thodox expositors, appointing a committee to exa- 
mine and revise all manner of books, and not guard- 
ing: an v > even the most venerable, from their 
censures. 

Some may say, that the labors of the congregation 
of the Index have made the way plain. Enquir- 
ers have nothing henceforth to do, but purchase 
an Index Expurgatorius, and, straightway, they can 
discover, with infallible certainty, the guides whose 
unanimous consent shall render it safe for them 
to hear God's answer to the question, what shall they 
do to be saved. This is not so. The congregation 
of the Index (or rather the divines whose researches 
suggested the framing such a congregation) were 
appointed and empowered to act in the eighteenth 
session of the Council of Trent. In the twenty-fifth 
their labors were completed, but the Council found 
it inconvenient, in consequence of the multifarious 
nature of their remarks and censures, to examine 
them, and referred the entire matter to the Pope, 
for his decision. 

Thus, the authority with which the Council might 



180 



GUIDE TO AN 



have invested " the Index" was withheld. Its censures 
are not warnings to be of necessity attended to ; its 
recommendation is not an infallible guide ; and thus, 
in countries where it is not received, there is the 
mortifying conviction, that, to discover the Fathers 
of the Church whose writings are the approved com- 
ments on Scripture, is a matter wholly impossible, 
until a new Council shall have afforded some assis- 
tance to the inquirer ; and that, in the mean time, 
he is a perjurer, or an apostate from the Church of 
Rome, who shall read a chapter of the Bible. 

Such is the condition of Roman Catholics in Ire- 
land. Here the decisions of the congregation have 
no manner of authority. " The Index Expurgato- 
rius," says Dr. Murray, " has no authority whatever 
in Ireland ; it has never been received in these coun- 
tries ; and I doubt much whether there be ten people 
in Ireland who have ever seen it. It is a sort of 
censorship of books, established in Rome, and it is 
not even received in Spain, where they have a cen- 
sorship of their own ; in these countries it has no 
force whatever."* How, then, in these countries, 
shall a submissive votary of the Papal Church make 
preparation to read the Scripture ? He is first to 
find out an authoritative recognition of "the Fa- 
thers," — a search not more likely to terminate in 
success than that after " the fifth veda." He is then 
to find out where these undiscoverable authorities 
have been unanimous in opinion, in which, if he can 
succeed, or even if he can show that any one of them 

* Com. Com. May 17, 1825. Most Rev. Dr. Murray. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



181 



has been consistent with himself, he may demonstrate 
Dr. Doyle's theorem, that the creed of Pius IV. and 
the Thirty-nine Articles are synonimous.* When 
he has successfully accomplished this superhuman 
undertaking, he may read the Bible ; but, until then, 
he has solemnly bound himself to eschew God's 
word. Should he violate his oath, the ark in which 
he is said to be safe, while prosecuting his search— 
the ark whose name is mystery— casts him out to 
perish — like that gloomy boat of eastern story, which 
defied the raging of winds and waves, but dreaded 
the breath of prayer ; and, vanishing at the utterance 
of a holy word, gave up to the fury of a merciless 
waste of water, the voyager who, in a moment of 
sore peril, had forgotten his compact of impiety, and 
invoked the name of God. 

And must it be confessed, that, according to the 
creed which every Roman Catholic acknowledges, 
the penalty of everlasting damnation is incurred by 
an inhabitant of this country, if he presume to read 
the Bible ? Perhaps, although he cannot discover 

* " The chief points to be discussed are, the Canon of the 
Sacred Scriptures, faith, justification, the mass, the sacraments, 
the authority of tradition, of councils, of the Pope, the celibacy 
of the clergy, language of the liturgy, invocation of saints, 
respect for images, prayers for the dead. On most of these, it 
appears to me, that there is no essential difference between Ca- 
tholics and Protestants ; the existing diversity of opinion arises, 
in most cases, from certain forms of words, which admit of 
satisfactory explanation, or from the ignorance or misconcep- 
tions which ancient prejudice or ill will produce and strengthen, 
but which could be removed." — Letter to Mr, Robinson. 



182 



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for himself the Fathers who are recognized as faithful 
and consentient commentators, the Church, in ac- 
cordance with another part of his profession, has 
provided against his suffering very grievous incon- 
venience. He promises to receive the Bible in the 
sense in which the Church receives it. Perhaps the 
Church has made that sense known, and in such a 
form as to render the search for a religion among 
the Fathers unnecessary. Alas, no — the votary who 
promises to receive Scripture agreeably to the ex- 
planation of the Church, experiences a new difficulty 
here, — for no such explanation has been vouchsafed.* 
It does not appear that there exists in any language, 
a Bible to which comments are appended, such as 
could properly be styled notes of which the Church 
approves ; which explain the true and acknowledged 
sense of Scripture. What is then to be understood 
by the letter and spirit of the Roman Creed, except 

* Lords' Com. March 21, 1825. " Have you, in any in- 
stances, allowed the circulation of the Bible, without notes ?" 
Right Rev. J. Doyle — " I do not know that we have." " You 
consider yourselves pledged to all matters contained in these 
notes?" " No, not by any means." " The notes carry 7 , in our 
editions of the Bible, no weight." Dr. Murray, in the course of 
the same inquiry, was asked, " what are the particular notes, by 
what authority prepared, or where are they to be found, which, 
in your opinion, should accompany the Bible ?" The answer 
taught, that, up to May, 1825, no such notes existed, and that 
those now appended to the Bible by Dr. Murray have no better 
than private authority. " I have myself procured an edition of 
the Bible, which is now ready to be issued, a stereotype edition, 
with notes such as I approve of" 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



183 



Ujj that it prohibits the reading of Scripture under pe- 

. nalty of eternal damnation ? 

But is it found by experience, that the Bible is a 

. sealed book to the Roman Catholics of Ireland? 
No. The extreme rigor of the law is tempered by 
mildness in its execution, and, notwithstanding pro- 
hibitions of such a nature as we have been consider- 
ing, very great numbers of our countrymen, instigated 
by conscience or seduced by Bible Societies, are 
permitted, at their own will, to disregard their obli- 
gations and slay their souls. There are prohibitions 

i so inconsistent and absurd as to be ineffectual ; and 
when the Church of Rome appeals to experience, 
and says that she is not to be charged with the guilt 
of sealing the Bible, because, in point of fact, her 
votaries have opened it, she is not acquitting herself 
of having imposed unjust restrictions, but confessing 
that they were so strait as to force all her children 
to " desert the ark" and encounter " the deluge." 
Even the Irish Gentleman, who professes so entire 
resignation to the will of his Church, is not able to 
acquiesce in the slavery to which she would consign 
him. Strongly as he asserts, and eloquently as he 
eulogises, the rigid rule which would make the in- 
terpretation of Scripture, by private judgment, death, 
his practice as directly opposes, as his professions 
fully assent to, the antichristian enactment. He, 
without hesitation, advances his own readings of 
Scripture — puts aside, without scruple or notice, the 
version which Trent pronounces authentic, and, upon 
at least one important and remarkable occasion, for- 
mally advances the interpretation of a Protestant 



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Divine, as that by which the vulgate, and the Douay, 
and the stereotyped Dublin versions of Dr. Murray, 
are discredited, and the young convert's conjectural 
emendation confirmed.* But not for this is the 
handwriting of menace in the Creed obliterated. 
The soul that interpreteth shall die, is the legend 
which has been inscribed on the portals of the Church 
of Rome. The seven deadly sins, the four cardinal 
vices, the habits which could justify foul suspicions,-)- 
all may enter freely — but God's word and man's 
reason are excluded. Is it damnable to doubt that 
such things should not be ? 

* Travels, Vol. I, pp. 249—268. The Travels contain 
many similar inconsistencies. One example is sufficient for 
the purposes of our argument. 

f Travels, Vol. I. p. 4. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 185 



CHAPTER XII. 

Infallibility. Scripture not to be adduced by Roman Catholics, 
because its meaning has been left unsettled — Erasmus — Je- 
rome — Chrysostom. False translation — Creed of Pius IV. 

The dogma of infallibility consists of two parts : one, 
that the Church of Christ cannot err ; a second, that 
the Church so very highly favored is the Roman. 
The arguments, by which this doctrine is defended, 
are evidence to prove that the gift of infallibility was 
actually conferred, and reasoning to demonstrate its 
necessity. 

The evidences are, for the most part, Scriptural 
precepts and promises, addressed by our blessed 
Lord to his Church, which are interpreted as if they 
signified, not only that the kingdoms of the world 
are finally to become the kingdoms of God and of 
his Christ, and that in order to their being thus con- 
verted, a religious ministration should be ever main- 
tained, but that the Church so preserved should always 
be visible and never permitted to err. The tes- 
timonies of uninspired writers are adduced, princi- 
pally, to show, that the Church of Rome, has 
rightful supremacy over all congregations of the 
faithful, and must therefore either possess or partici- 



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pate in the divine attribute with which the true 
Church is said to be endowed. 

The advocates of Protestant principle, are usually 
so strong in their cause, and so bold in their freedom, 
that they pay little regard to punctilio in any contest 
with their adversaries. Therefore they have willingly 
encountered arguments which their antagonists 
should never have been permitted to use, if proprie- 
ties were observed, and like the hardy cavaliers of 
more poetical times have shown love for their oppo- 
nents by conquering them under circumstances in 
which " the combat" should have been accounted a 
condescension and an indulgence. 

We have no right to complain of the consequences. 
Every argument which industry could discover, or 
ingenuity devise, has been broken upon the Pro- 
testant Church ; and the cause of religious freedom 
has been effectually secured against the despotism 
which would counteract the designs of Providence, 
by extinguishing reason in his worshippers, as well 
as against the impious daring which would abuse his 
gifts to licentiousness. But, while important good 
has been attained, one thing has been neglected, 
namely, to remind advocates in the service of the 
Church of Rome, that they have been, in all con- 
troversies, availing themselves of arguments from 
which, if they respected the exactments of their 
Church, they were precluded. 

For example: it used to be said (until I read 
the Travels and learned how they were valued, I 
thought the advocates of Rome had become wiser) 
that our blessed Lord built his Church on Peter. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



187 



The reader need not be alarmed. I have not the 
least idea of engaging in the examination of a pas- 
sage which is so thoroughly understood, and on 
which, since Barrow's Treatise on the Papal Supre- 
macy, no additional light has been or need be thrown. 
I adduce the text, not with a notion that it requires 
to be explained, but rather for the purpose of show- 
ing that a Roman Catholic should not advance it. He 
has solemnly pledged himself not to receive any 
Scripture, save according to the unanimous consent 
of the Fathers. What is the unanimous determina- 
tion of the Fathers here ? Are they all agreed with 
St. Augustine? If so, they pronounce that the 
foundation of the Church was not Peter. With 
Chrysostom ? They pronounce again that Peter was 
not that rock. Do they follow Cyprian or Origin ? 
They affirm that no honor was conferred on Peter 
higher than was bestowed on the other apostles, or, 
indeed, it might perhaps be said, higher than is 
granted to every faithful Christian. Are they fol- 
lowers of Jerome ? If his comments on the Gospel 
according to St. Matthew are correctly given, they 
profess to believe, that, in some metaphorical sense, 
the privilege was conferred on Peter. But why 
should I, to no purpose, occupy my reader. The 
judgment of the Fathers is not unanimous as to the 
meaning of any of those passages of Scripture by 
which infallibility is patronized ; whosoever, there- 
fore, has been bound not to receive Scripture unless 
according to (nisi juxta) the unanimous agreement 
of these interpreters, is pledged not to ascribe any 
meaning to a passage on which they have differed. 



188 



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Indeed, the principle which places " on their 
parole" if I may use such an expression, certain 
texts of Scripture which have been a kind of house- 
hold troops for controversy, is one which should 
exercise a much wider influence, and, very probably, 
to men of scrupulous conscience and extensive 
enquiry, would shut up the whole Bible. " I will 
never receive Scripture, unless according to the 
unanimous consent of the Fathers." " I admit 
(admitto is the term) Scripture agreeably to the 
interpretation of the Church." Whenever therefore, 
a member of the Church of Rome adduces a 
Scriptural passage on which the Fathers have not 
been unanimous, or the Church has not determined, 
he is availing himself of an argument which he had 
renounced, and is, by the very fact of using it, 
confessing that he believes the Church of Rome in 
error, and that he is a Protestant. 

The reader may be desirous to see some proof of 
that difference in opinion among the Fathers which 
renders it inconsistent with the principles of a 
Roman Catholic to avail himself of expressions in 
Scripture on which the argument for Papal supre- 
macy is grounded. The testimony of Erasmus 
alone should satisfy the Irish Gentleman that there 
was no unanimity on the subject. Indeed, it would 
appear as if the obvious diversity of opinion which 
prevailed among the Fathers was not unknown to 
him, and that in consequence, he has abstained from 
quoting what, without their consent, he was not 
warranted to receive. Perhaps, the abstinence from 
Scripture which is so characteristic a feature of the 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



189 



Travels may have had its origin in the Trent con- 
fession. Protestants may be amazed that the 
Bible should not have been the book to which an 
enquirer for religion had immediate recourse, but if 
they recollected that the enquirer was solemnly 
pledged not to " admit" it, unless according to the 
explanation of his Church — (an explanation which 
has never been given) — not to consult it, until he had 
made up his mind from the Fathers, (writers who 
would have done much more for him than for them- 
selves had they assisted him to so goodly a consum- 
mation) they would, perhaps, have spared them- 
selves at least all feeling of surprise at finding the 
Bible neglected. There are other feelings from 
which they ought not to be free, — such as are natu- 
rally awakened on witnessing the place assigned by 
professing Christians to the Book of God's Word. 
In the early Councils, the Bible was solemnly placed 
in honor in sight of all, was the standard to which 
reference was invariably made, and by which all 
discrepancies of opinion were reconciled or corrected. 
Now, the Fathers are at the feast, the Bible with 
the neglected solitary at the Gate — or, more appro- 
priately for the comparison with early times, the 
Fathers are in counsel — they constitute the legisla- 
tive assembly of the Church, and, when a division 
is called, the unceremonious dismissal, strangers 
withdraw, is addressed to God's Holy Scriptures. 

If our Traveller were under due subjection to the 
principles of his Church, it is not surprising that 
he read not, at least did not refer to the book which 
she has so carefully prohibited. Our wonder should 
be that he cited any passage from Scripture, and 



190 



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especially that he did not abstain from all notice of 
the sixth chapter of St. John, placed under the Ban, 
as he must have felt it to be, by St. Augustine's 
commentary, and having occasioned, as is well- 
known to every reader of Church history, conside- 
rable distraction to the divines assembled in the 
Council of Trent* 

* It is probable, that there is scarcely a word in many Scrip- 
tural expressions applied to the eucharist which has not fur- 
nished occasion for diversities of opinion. The disputes which 
have arisen as to the meaning of the first word in the sentence, 
" This is my body" are well known to most readers. Protestants 
urged, that what our blessed Lord called " This" was the same 
thing which he also called his body. He took bread, not what 
had been bread, but was then changed, and said this, that is, this 
bread — is, (not shall be) my body, from which it has been 
contended, that no substantial change can be implied in words 
which indicate, that what our blessed Saviour held in his hand ? 
to which he applied the pronoun " this" was, at the same time 
bread and also his body. To meet this argument in proof of a figu- 
rative interpretation, advocates of the doctrine declared in the 
councils of Lateran and Trent, have proposed explanations of 
the vexatious " this," equally at variance with each other and the 
truth. The author of the Medulla Theologica, seventh edi- 
tion, published at Nice with approbation and permission, speak- 
ing of the various interpretations offered by heretics, admits that 
the explanations of the " Catholic doctors," have been various 
also, and, omitting those of inferior merit, proposes as most satis- 
factory, the explanation " that, by the pronoun < hoc,' or 4 hie,' 
nothing is denoted which exists in the moment when the word 
is pronounced, but something which exists at the end of the 
pronunciation of the expression, and that the form of speech 
before repeated, is to be understood according to the last 
instant of the utterance of the words." Hoc vel "hie nihil de- 
monstrari quod sit eo tempore quo profertur." &c. Med. Theol. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



191 



But, to return from my digression and give proof, 
that those passages of Scripture by which the Church 
of Rome seeks to justify the papal pretensions, con- 
tain testimonies which, because of the diversity of 
opinion as to their meaning, she should not have ad- 
duced. The reader well acquainted with the subject 
will pardon me while I endeavour, in a brief space, 
to satisfy the less instructed. The Scholium of 
Erasmus alone on the address to Peter, should be 
sufficient for the occasion. " On this rock," &c* On 
this rock, that is, on this steadfast professio?i of faith, 
I will build my Church. In this interpretation, 

Vol. 2. p. 78, Even this interpretation is to be understood in 
a two fold sense, the pronoun being taken either substantively 
to signify the substance of the body which is to be, or adjec- 
tively, which is explained in a manner not at all unfavourable to 
the figurative interpretation. 

I have alluded to such diversity of opinion merely to illustrate 
a principle, and shall therefore content myself with instancing 
by a single example, the inaccuracy of the definition, by which 
the Church of Rome explains the pronoun, " this". If a man 
hold a paper in his hand and say, " this" (setting his signature 
to it) "is a bank note" although it has undergone a change in 
the interval between his first word and the last, we account the 
expression correct ; but if he say " this" (and then substitute 
another paper instead of that which he first held) "is a bank 
note," we consider the proposition false and the act a juggle, 
accounting the term one which may be used after an alteration 
has taken place in the quality of the thing to which it was ap- 
plied, provided that the thing itself, that is, the substance of it 
has not departed. Many a tour de phrase must be sought out 
by those who would maintain an indefensible dogma. 

" Things bad begun, strengthen themselves by ill. " 



192 



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Theophylact, and Chrysostom, and St. Augustine 
agree."* 

To the names enumerated by Erasmus very many 
of high authority could be added. Origin, for ex- 
ample, denies Peter's exclusive right to the name 
assigned him by our Lord ; affirming that every one 
who believes " in Christ who is the Rock" partakes 
of the qualities for which the name should be given, 
and that thus, all who are Christians have fellowship 
in the name of Peter ; that which was spoken to him 
in the letter being addressed to them in the spirit. 
I very much doubt whether the name of Jerome 
also should not be inserted in such a catalogue. His 
note is as follows : "To Simon who believed in the 
Hock Christ he gave the name of Peter, and, accord- 
ing to the metaphor of a Rock it is rightly said to 
him, I will build my Church on thee." For two rea- 
sons I am disposed to believe, that the two words in 
italics have been intruded upon Jerome's commen- 
tary, by some of those copiers whom candid writers 
belonging to the Church of Rome, as well Protestants 
as have so often complained of. In the first place, 
such words are not said to Peter, as the Roman Ca- 
tholic reader will find by turning to his Bible, even 
as he reads in Dr. Murray's stereotyped edition. 
It is not to be supposed that, in this there is any 
departure from the letter and the spirit of Jerome's 

* Schol. in S. Mat. Erasmus expresses his surprise that there 
are some who distort or divert the expression to the pope. 
« Proinde miror esse qui locum hunc detorqueant ad Romanum 
Pontificem, &c." The sense in which Erasmus applies it to the 
Pope, is one in which Protestants may concur. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



193 



translation, the Latin Vulgate ; and it recites Christ's 
promise as a declaration that he will build his Church 
on the Rock. To suppose, therefore, that Jerome ex- 
plains, as an expression of our Lord, the words "I will 
build my Church on thee," is to suppose, that the com- 
mentary on the passage and the translation of it were 
directly at variance ; that he was giving a reason for 
what did not exist. As there is evidently, therefore, op- 
position between the translator's text and his note, as 
there is also variance between the first part of the note 
and the second, and as the first part accurately cor- 
responds with the text, which the second contradicts, 
I am inclined to believe, rather, that the transcribers 
did this injury to the passage, than that Jerome, 
himself, wrote so inconsistently. A second reason 
which induces me to suspect interpolition is, that I 
have found the identical words, " super te," intruded 
into the latin text of Chrysostom, in order to improve 
his meaning. The orator in a discourse, the pur- 
port of which was to prove the divinity of our bles- 
sed Saviour, is enumerating the instances of power, 
and authority, by which he, as it were, asserted his 
superior title. One of these is giving Peter a name ; 
one is the declaration that he will build a Church. 
" Thou art Peter ; I will build my Church." Thus 
in £he original ; but the Latin translator, not think- 
ing the passage furnished enough for his purpose, 
boldly intrudes the necessary words. " On thee I 
will build my Church."* Transcribers would not, 

* Homilia 55 in Matthseum, Paris edition, A.D. 1603. 
Frontonis Ducoei Societ. Iesu. recognita, &c. &c. also the 
Antwerp latin edition of 1614. 

o 



194 



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dare not, without a certainty of detection, exercise so 
unceremonious authority over Scripture, and, hence, 
perhaps it has come to pass, that Jerome's inter- 
pretation of Scripture has been permitted to re- 
main, while his note has been constrained to submit 
to the rule of the country and take up the requisite 
portion of alloy. When so daring a liberty was ta- 
ken with a writer who, in the same discourse which 
was thus debased, directly stated that the Church 
was built " on the faith" which Peter " had confes- 
sed,"* it is not very hazardous to suppose that Jerome 
experienced a similar alteration, the text of the 
Scripture escaping in the one case, as the original 
Greek in the other, and thus, in each instance, a mean 
being provided, whereby the adulteration is detected. 

However the question is to be decided, it is most 
evident, that the interpretations of the Fathers are of 
such a character as to preclude the professors of the 
Creed of Pius from the production in argument, or 
even from considering in study, the passage on which 
they have differed. On what, then, can they rely 
for the primacy of the Apostle Peter ? On the gift 
of the keys ? Even supposing this to have been a 
peculiar privilege, — it was exercised in the case of 
the first Gentile convert, to whom Peter " opened 
the door of faith," — the Lord, in his wisdom and 
mercy, influencing by a miracle, the apostle who was 
most bigoted, if we may so say, to Jewish prejudice, 
that he should be foremost in opening the free gospel 
of his crucified Master to all nations and people. 
Will they advance the precept of our Lord, when 

* Est/ tfitrru rr,s opcXoyiccs, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 195 

three times Peter expressed his love, as is related in 
the conclusion of the Gospel of St. John ? It is 
strange that the love and mercy of Christ shall be so 
abused to controversy, and that the gracious words 
in which he restores Peter to the place he had for- 
feited, and signifies the restoration to his associates, 
shall be distorted, as if they bestowed, what neither 
Peter ever aspired to, or the other apostles acknow- 
ledged — superiority. But, reason has been abjured, 
and therefore Scripture has been misinterpreted. 
However, the same oath which binds the Romish 
clergy, the same obligation which constrains the 
laity to hold all exercise of private judgment prohi- 
bited, binds them with equal straitness to submit to 
the judgment of the Fathers ; and thus writes St. 
Augustine — M Who afterwards, that from his remote- 
ness he might be brought near, (ex longinquo ut pro- 
pinquus fleret.) heard, after the resurrection, ' Lovest 
thou me ?' paid said, ' I love. ? And thus saying, he 
was brought near, who, by denying, had removed 
himself ; and by a thrice repeated expression of love, 
he became absolved from the thrice repeated denial, 
(solveret trinam vocem negationis)." Can the Scrip- 
ture which is thus explained, be adduced as favoring 
Rome in her controversy with reason ? 

Let no reader imagine that the passages from the 
New Testament to which I have here alluded, and 
others of similar character, could ever, by any inge- 
nuity of fair construction, lend authority to the papal 
claims. In all sincerity, I repeat, that the only 
reason why I do not enlarge on their meaning, and 
show that, beyond all cavil or question, they are 



196 



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unserviceable to these pretensions, is, that I do not 
wish to inflict unnecessary tediousness on my reader, 
and that even juvenile controversialists can no longer 
be deceived by citations which are now universally 
understood. I have referred to Scripture, rather as 
furnishing occasion to illustrate a general principle, 
than with the idea of being its interpreter. The 
principle is, that members of the Church of Rome 
usurp a Protestant privilege and deny their own 
faith, when they appeal to Scripture. All are sup- 
posed to have declared — ecclesiastics have sworn — 
that they will not receive it, unless according to the 
interpretation of the Church ; — the Church has not 
condescended to publish any authentic explanation. 
They have sworn that they will not receive it, except 
according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers — 
they have no authentic enumeration of these highly 
exalted interpreters, and there is scarcely a text in the 
New Testament on which the Fathers have been una- 
nimous. The Bible, therefore, committed to the dis- 
cretion of faithful Roman Catholics, under an oath, that 
until the Church pronounce, and the Fathers agree, 
they will not strive to understand it, must be intended 
for no other purpose than display, — that they may 
boast before the heretic, how liberally knowledge is 
conceded to them, and employ the Scriptures as the 
daughters of the Vicar, of Wakefield were to use 
the guineas which a prudent mother confided to their 
keeping, telling them that they might sometimes, by 
well concerted accident, let them be seen, but giving 
the strictest prohibition that they were never to 
change them. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



197 



The title of Roman Catholics to quote Scripture 
being, so evidently, a thing of nought, it was not 
unreasonable to expect that, in adducing testimonies 
from uninspired writers, they would be more than 
ordinary scrupulous ; and yet, in these they appear 
to be just as eager to press into the service of their 
cause whatever may seem to be useful, and as indif- 
ferent to the issue of a cross-examination, as they 
have shown themselves with respect to the more 
solemn and decisive testimony. The Irish Gentle- 
man has adduced two passages of this character, — 
the one recommended by the name of Optatus, the 
other by the still more ancient and more honored 
patronage of Irenaeus. He cannot willingly consent 
to resign them, for they are certainly more favorable 
to his purpose than any others he has adduced ; and 
yet, it is only necessary to pay respect to the opinions 
of distinguished members of the Church of Rome, in 
order to become persuaded that neither of these pas- 
sages can, in strict propriety, be ascribed to its re- 
puted author. 

The testimony purporting to be that of Optatus, 
is thus introduced — " In a still more Popish spirit, 
St. Optatus (a Bishop of Milevis, in the fourth cen- 
tury,) thus writes : — 6 You cannot deny that St. 
Peter, the chief of the apostles, established an episco- 
pal chair at Rome. This chair was one, that all 
might preserve unity by the union they had with it ; 
so that whoever set up a chair against it, should be 
a schismatic and an offender.' " * This is not a very 



* Travels, Vol. I. 



198 



GUIDE TO AN 



literal translation of the words in the original ; but it 
would not, perhaps, have called for censure, were it 
not that a most remarkable expression has been 
omitted. In the Latin, after the words chief or head 
of the apostles, there follows, " whence also he was 
called Cephas," — an expression, in itself, worthy of 
note, because of the strange ignorance of which it 
convicts its author, as also for the commentaries to 
which it has furnished occasion. Another circum- 
stance should also be noticed, namely, that imme- 
diately after the declaration, that the setter up of a 
rival cathedral must be held a schismatic and a 
sinner, we have in the passage ascribed to Optatus, 
in the original, a list of the Bishops of Rome, 
ending with the name of Siricius, whom iie claims as 
his associate. " Siricius hodie, qui noster est socius." 

Now it has been proved to demonstration, that 
Siricius was not Bishop of Rome until several years 
after the time in which Optatus wrote his work 
against the Donatists — the work in which the alleged 
passage is found. The date of the work is ascer- 
tained by the testimony of Jerome ; and, at that 
date, Damasus was the Roman Bishop. The device 
by which commentators belonging to the Church of 
Rome endeavour to escape from the obvious incon- 
venience of this anachronism, is to allege that some 
individual, in times immediately subsequent to that 
of Optatus, inserted, in copying the saint's treatise, 
a name which completed the catalogue of Roman 
Bishops.* For the derivation of the Apostle Peters 

* Annotatio Albaspinsei — Damas. Siricius hodie — Fr. Bal- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



199 



name, a similar defence is set up. "As to what is 
read in Optatus, that Peter, because he was head of 
the apostles, was called Cephas, I have said else- 
where," observes Balduinus, " that it is the solascism 
of a man dreaming, that the Syriac term which sig- 
nifies a 6 rock/ is the Greek /ce0aA^, which signifies 
" head.' But I suspect that these words, 4 wherefore 
he was called Cephas/ belonged to some foolish com- 
ment written unguardedly on the margin, and thence 
by copiers inserted in the text." 

Thus, it is confessed, that two expressions in the 
passage from Optatus — the one preceding, the other 
following those words on which the Irish Gentleman 
places so much reliance— were not written by the 
author to whom they were imputed. Upon what 
testimony, then, is the intermediate portion to be 
received ? It would, I am quite ready to admit, be 
unjust to argue from one, or even several inaccu- 
racies such as are noticed, that the entire text of the 
writer is corrupt ; but surely it is most unreasonable 
to adduce the very passage in which two interpola- 
tions are of necessity acknowledged, for the purpose 
of obtaining high authority in favor of a disputed doc- 
trine. To say, — a sentence has been interpolated— 

duinus scribit sibi hsec videri non Optati esse sed alicujus 
paulo post eura scriptoris. Nam constat Optatum scripsisse hos 
libros circa annum 370 Siricium vero non fuisse creaturn Epis- 
copum ante annum 393. See the Paris edition of Optatus, 
A. D. 1676, in which the argumeuts of Balduinus are also 
given. In the preface, Philippus Priorius acknowledges the 
gross corruption of the text, and excuses himself only by alleging 
the extreme penury of good copies. 



200 



GUIDE TO AN 



therefore the works of Optatus should be altogether 
rejected, — would be rash and unwarrantable ; but it 
is certainly not much more reasonable to argue 
thus — he could not have written a clause which be- 
trays gross ignorance — he could not have written a 
clause which is evidently untrue ; but between these 
two spurious expressions there is a passage which 
promotes an object which I have at heart, therefore 
I will insist that the testimony it bears is not dispa- 
raged by the circumstances of falsehood by which it 
is attended and encompassed ; and thus, by the simple 
process of declaring spurious whatever would invali- 
date my argument, and pronouncing genuine what- 
soever I find it expedient to adopt, I shall have esta- 
blished the validity of evidence offered in the name of 
Optatus, as to the supremacy of the Church of Rome. 

Had the passage, ascribed to Optatus respecting 
Rome and the Roman Bishops, been conformable 
to the principle on which his argument against 
the Donatists has been founded, I should not have 
insisted on its evident and acknowledged spurious- 
ness. I should have thought it unwise and unbe- 
coming to attempt proving a controverted point of 
doctrine, by a worse than controverted testimony, 
but would not, for the sake of exposing an adversa- 
ry's want of judgment, postpone the consideration of 
matters far more important. But, it happens, that 
the argument of Optatus lends no aid whatever to the 
notion that any part of the interpolated passage was 
of his composition. He upbraids the Donatists with 
their extreme presumption in thinking that they alone 
constituted a true Church, " That in a particle of 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



201 



Africa in the nook of a small vegion where you are, 
it may be, amongst us, in the remainder of Africa it 
cannot be. If you will allow it to be only among 
yourselves, in the three Pannonias, in Dacia, Mysia 
Thracia, Achaia, Macedonia, and in all Greece 
where you are not, it will not be, &c. &c." " And 
over innumerable islands and provinces which can 
scarcely be numbered where you are not, it cannot 
be. Where then is the propriety of the Catholic 
name, since it is therefore called Catholic because it 
is rational and universal" — " rationabilis & ubique 
diffusa."* 

In this remonstrance, however the word " ratio- 
nabilis" be rendered, whether as implying that the 
Church is to be discerned by the reason, or that it 
is subject to rule, it is certain, at least, that no 
authority is ascribed to the Roman Church, or any 
dignity claimed for her. Yet, if the belief of Opta- 
tus were such as our Traveller imputes to him, what 
could be more rational than that, instead of enume- 
rating all those provinces he has named, and censur- 
ing the pride and uncharitableness which could ex- 
clude them from Christian communion — he should at 
once have named the city and the Church of Rome, 
and reproached the heretics with their presump- 
tuous separation from it. Surely it is suspicious, and 
" might give pause" even to a hardy disputant, that 
the name of Rome, and the claims of honor for the 
Papal chair are not found where it would be, under 
one supposition, most natural to expect them, and 



* Opt. Alb. 



202 



GUIDE TO AN 



that where they are met, we meet also expressions 
which impart a character of forgery to every thing 
with which they are immediately connected. 

The passage from Irenaeus, as quoted by the Irish 
Gentleman, is as follows : " We can enumerate those 
bishops who were appointed by the apostles and their 
successors down to ourselves, none of whom taught 
or even knew the wild opinions of those men (here- 
tics.) However as it would be tedious to enumerate 
the whole list of successions, I shall confine myself 
to that of Rome, the greatest, and most ancient, and 
most illustrious Church, founded by the glorious 
Apostles Peter and Paul, receiving from them her 
doctrine which was announced to all men, and which, 
through the succession of her bishops, is come down to 
us. Thus we confound all those who, through evil 
designs, or vain-glory or perverseness, teach what 
they ought not, for to this Church, on account of 
its superior headship, every other must have recourse, 
that is, the faithful of all countries, in which Church 
has been preserved the doctrine delivered by the 
apostles."* 

A few words may not perhaps be unseasonable on 
the concluding paragraph of this Romish version of 
as cramp a piece of barbarous Latin as ever per- 
plexed a translator.f It assumes the " superior 

* Travels, Vol. L p. 31, 

f Ad hanc enim ecclesiam, propter potiorem principalitatem, 
necesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam, hoc est eos qui sunt 
undique fideles in qua semper ab his qui sunt undique conser- 
vata est ea quae est ab Apostolis Traditio. — Adv. Hser. 



> 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 203 

headship" of the Church of Rome and the necessary 
submission of the faithful of all other Churches as 
acknowledged, and proposes, as the only point to 
be proved or ascertained, the doctrine and discipline 
which were held at Rome, and which all Christians 
were bound to follow. If this assumption were correct, 
the name by which Irenaeus designated the persons 
whom he addressed, was very unjustly applied. 
They were not heretics, but, on the contrary, true 
children of the pope. They desired only to know 
what was taught at Rome, and were ready, with all 
submission to receive it. If this be an absurdity, 
and if we must confess, that it was against heretics 
the censures of Irenaeus were directed, it follows, that 
the argument ascribed to him was exceedingly out of 
place, for he assumes in it, as admitted, the very 
point which, as a champion of the Roman Church, 
he was especially called on to defend. 

The translation adopted by Protestant divines has 
no such ill consequences as these attending it. They 
observe that the word " its," which ascribes the su- 
perior headship to the Church of Rome, is an inter- 
polation, and that the expression may, with equal 
justice, be referred to the superiority of the Ro- 
man Metropolis. They translate, or understand 
the " having recourse," as not at all implying sub- 
mission, but, rather, expressing the resort of pro- 
vincials to the seat of sovereign authority, and they 
conceive Irenaeus to argue, that, inasmuch as the 
members of all Christian Churches resort to Rome, 
the seat of power, they become acquainted with the 
Roman Church, and find that the doctrines of the 



204 



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apostles, as they themselves understand them, are 
preserved in this common centre of the Christian 
world. The meaning or scope of the argument thus 
understood would be, — heretics, coming from all 
parts of the world, have the power of learning, what 
is taught at Rome, and of seeing that Roman doc- 
trine corresponds with that of the Church of their 
own country. This was a high honor conferred on 
Rome, but it was because of the city, not the 
Church. If it be said, that the Church, also, was 
represented as faithful, the praise was the historical 
testimony of a writer in the second century that it 
had so long been true, not a prophecy that it should 
continue true for sixteen hundred years longer. In 
short, according to this view of the argument, and 
in some degree according to the view taken of 
it by Roman Catholics themselves, Irenaeus refers to 
Rome rather that his reasoning may be simple and 
brief, than because he ascribed to it an authority 
which he does not attempt to prove, and which he 
could not assume without rendering his address to 
" heretics" preposterous. 

But upon what grounds is it maintained that 
Irenaeus ever wrote this passage, respecting which 
there has been so eager contention ? At best we 
have but the version of a translator who appears 
singularly unsuited for the office he had undertaken. 
We have portions of the original Greek in which 
Irenaeus wrote, but, for this obscure and barbarous 
passage, we are dependent altogether on the inter- 
preter. And what an interpreter ! — one whose per- 
formance is thus described in the dissertation pre- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 205 



] fixed to the edition of the works of Irenaeus published 
f by the Benedictine, Rhenatus Massuet. " The stile 
1 is barbarous, slovenly, and rugged, abounding in so- 
' laecisms, and in many places expressing imperfectly 
1 or altogether incorrectly (aut male omnino) the 
sentiments of the author." It had been proposed as 
a question whether the translation might not have 
been the work of the author himself. Against the 
supposition, the editor, (a Benedictine, be it remem- 
' bered) indignantly protests, insisting that Irenaeus 
knew his own meaning, which, it was quite evident 
j the translator did not, and instancing the very pas- 
sage by which the Irish Gentleman proves papal 
supremacy i as containing proof that the translator, 
(on whose sole testimony its authority depends) 
could not have executed his duty faithfully; inas- 
much as, if the translation were correct, the original 
contained very gross falsehood.* What must the 
cause be which can set such attainted championship 
in the fore front of its defences. 

But the cause which does not reject the suspicious 
alliance of Jerome's testimony, can assert small title 
to the praise of selection. Jerome, to whose expla- 
nation of Scriptural difficulties, Damasus, bishop of 

' * " If it be applied to time it will be most false." " Where- 
fore I scarcely doubt that Irenaeus wrote, in Greek, « most emi- 
I nent' which the interpreter falsely translated most ancient omni- 
; um antiquissimae quod si ad fundationes temporis referatur, 
falsissumum erit, &c. &c. Quare vix dubito quin Greece scri- 
pient Irenaeus u^aierums quod male verterit interpres, anti 
quissimae, cum vertendum hie fuisset praecipuae ac principis. 
Iren. Dissertat praev. Paris 1710. 



206 



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Rome, appears to have yielded almost implicit assent, 
whom, indeed, he courted with many flatteries to fa- 
vor him with biblical instruction, affirming that no- 
thing could be a more worthy subject of correspond- 
ence between them," provided it were so arranged 
that the bishop should be the disciple, the presbyter 
his instructor, " that I interrogate, you reply. "* 
Jerome, of whom, the author of his life, contained in 
the Benedictine edition of his works, affirms, that he 
was " the mouth of Damasus,"f this Jerome who 
was as little disposed to be parsimonious in giving 
praise, as he is well known to have been ruthless in 
censure, addressed an epistle to his patron pupil, in 
which he eulogises the Roman Church, under cir- 
cumstances about as favourable to disinterestedness 
as those in which a prime minister may be heard 
praising the king's speech ; and, such is the dearth of 
testimony in favor of the papal power, that eulogy, 
even thus obtained, has been put in requisition. 

The most extraordinary part, however, of this 
humiliating procedure is, that the quotation from 
Jerome, notwithstanding its complimentary form, is 
actually unfavourable to the doctrine of the papal 
supremacy. The original text of which the Irish 
gentleman has presented to his readers, rather a 
graceful than a correct interpretation, is as follows : 
" Ego nullum primum nisi Christum sequens, Beatitu- 
dini tuae, id est Cathedrae Petri communione con- 
socior, super illam petram cedificatam Ecclesiam 
scio." Here Jerome professes that he follows none 



* Hier, Par. 1699. j- Ibid. vol. 5. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 207 

but Christ, that he is in communion with the Church 
of Rome, and that the Church has been built upon 
that Rock which Peter had the honor, before any of 
the other apostles, to name. Surely there is nothing 
here which favours the doctrine of the papal supre- 
macy. Still less does it find favor from the epistle, 
taken generally, out of which the expression in the 
Travels, has been selected. It commences with an ac- 
count of the distractions by which the eastern Church 
was afflicted, and assigns these disorders as the rea- 
son why Jerome applied himself to the bishop of 
that Church where he had been a presbyter, and 
asserted his unbroken communion with it. Indeed, 
it is scarcely possible not to see that he maintained 
his respect for the Western Church, because he ap- 
proved of its doctrines, not because he submitted blindly 
to its authority. Quoniam vetusto Oriens, &c. Domini 
tunicam, &c. discerpsit; ideo mihi cathedram Petri 
et fidem Apostolico ore laudatam censui consulen- 
dam. Had he found true doctrine in the East, it 
seems evident, he would not have thought it neces- 
sary to consult the Western Churches ; but he had 
been convinced, that error abounded in one part 
of the Christian world and that in another part, 
sound doctrine prevailed, and this he learned not 
from the teaching or the decrees of those whose 
" infallibility" he had bestoived, or from the violence 
of the party whose persecution he had endured, but 
from the study of God's written word and by the 
exercise of private judgment. 

I really and truly feel fatigued as I look upon the 
mass of papers yet untouched in my desk, and preg- 



208 



GUIDE TO AN 



nant with matter for this most tedious controversy. 
I am sure the reader will rejoice to be spared the 
weariness of perusing them ; and this indulgence, I 
can with a safe conscience afford, inasmuch as the 
sole remaining quotation to which our Traveller could 
have attached any weight, is that which he has ex- 
tracted from the " blessed Cyprian," whose disregard 
of Scripture, it will be remembered, Jerome has 
mildly noticed. Yet, whether from his knowledge 
of the divine word, or because of the notoriety of 
Catholic doctrine, he was prevented from lending 
himself to the advocacy of papal power. Against 
this, he guards, even in the passage which the Irish 
Gentleman has cited from his writings; in which, 
expressing his belief that the primacy was given to 
Peter, he shows that it was a primacy of name not 
of authority, affirming that " the other apostles were, 
like Peter, invested with an equal participation of 
honor and power"* It is unnecessary to prove by 
various passages from the writings of this eminent 
Father, that he was most careful and resolute to 
maintain the independence of his own See, and to 
resist and condemn all approaches towards such a 
a power as the " Vicar of Christ," claims and would 
exercise. The portion of his writings which was 
most favourable to such a claim could furnish noth- 
ing better than a testimony which, as clearly as words 
could express anticipatory denial, gave it a decided 
contradiction. 



* Travels, Vol. 1, p. 53. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 209 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Infallibility — Abuse of Freedom — Valentinians — Rationalists — 
Infallible Guide not ascertained — Bellarmine — Augustine — 
Canonical Books of Scripture — Jerome — Council of Trent. 

It is unnecessary to quote the argument, by which 
the Irish Gentleman infers the necessity of an un- 
erring guide and implicit submission to his dictates, 
from the abuses of freedom. In this part of his sub- 
ject, he walks with so observant a docility in the 
track of his predecessors, that, to examine his ar- 
guments in detail would be to weary the reader and 
to waste time and space which may be, I trust, 
much better employed. 

The argument in proof of infallibility, because of 
the necessity of an unerring guide, is not in the 
slightest degree disguised or dignified by the man- 
ner in which our Traveller has represented it. The 
same servile spirit which speaks in the reasonings of 
the humblest and least educated in his Church, ap- 
pears to have been the Irish Gentleman's prompter. 
Every slander which he could gather from every 
source, he has not scrupled to advance against the 
men who dared to think that they were responsible 

p 



210 



GUIDE TO AN 



for the gifts with which God had blessed them, and 
that they could no more confide to another, the 
task of thinking for them, than they could imitate 
that easy prince whom the Church of Rome delights 
to honor, because he embraced her creed and re- 
nounced Protestantism, among whose teachers he 
could find none to equal the liberality of his jesuit 
friend, who agreed, if the Royal votary failed of ob- 
taining heaven in " the Church of Rome, that he 
would suffer damnation in his stead.* 

It happens, however, that in " the Travels" the 
argument for infallibility, is a little too conclusive. 
Part of the second volume is occupied by a recital 
of the evils which have afflicted Modern Europe, 
springing out of that baleful right of judgment which 
men who think none infallible but God have felt it 
their duty to exercise. All their errors in specula- 
tion and practice are traced to this " obstinate rati- 
onality" in which they would be free, and their im- 
piety is held out as a warning to all, that they should 
eschew the perilous privilege of free thought, and 
embrace that protected and patient slavery to which 
the danger of thinking is unknown ; that they should 
recoil from the evils which the reformation has pro- 
duced, and take shelter in the bosom of a Church to 
which reformation is unwelcome. 

It is, however, an inconsistency, which even in a 
writer so regardless of reason as the Irish Gentleman, 
occasions some little surprise, that the first volume 
of " the Travels" contains as mournful a picture of 



* Fifty Reasons, &c 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



211 



heresies which disfigured the early ages of the Church, 
as his second exhibits of those which have sprung 
from the Reformation. How is this to be explained, 
so as not to weaken the argument for infallibility 
and against private judgment ? When the various 
tribes of Gnostics flourished — when Valentinians, 
and Marcionites, and Manichseans, and all the swarms 
of the blasphemers of old, abused Scripture and bel- 
lied tradition, and made reason subservient to most 
frantic superstitions, had the dogma of infallibility 
been universally received? Was the exercise of 
private judgment universally prohibited ? If such 
doctrines as Rome holds essential, flourished then in 
all the vigor of early youth, ministered to, also, as 
it is confidently asserted, by frequent and glorious 
miracles, and were yet incapable of controuling the 
extravagance of the human reason, and were unaf- 
fected by the passionate complaint of that Father 
who mourns over a period of universal heresy, — 
why shall it be imputed as a vice to the Reformation, 
that it could not impose on free minds a restraint, 
by which, in the days of her pride and power, Rome, 
confessedly, could not coerce her slaves. Let the 
most favorable account which the orthodox have 
given, of any early heresy, be set up by the side of 
the angriest representation in which Bossuet, or the 
coarsest of his followers, has reviled Protestant sects, 
and the modern error will appear so trivial as hardly 
to be discernible. But indeed the juxta position 
cannot well be made. There is scarcely a schism of 
the primitive times, the account of which it would 
be possible to recite. The accusations are generally 



212 



GUIDE TO AN 



of a character which we could not describe ; and we 
must be contented with a general observation, that 
religious doctrines were never exhibited in wilder 
extravagance, or the nature of man subdued to 
deeper degradation, than in many of the heresies 
which, in the earlier ages of the Church, assailed 
and strove to corrupt the purity of religion. If 
such corruptions do not prejudice what is termed 
the cause of the Church of Rome in its power, why 
shall the comparatively venial trespasses of modern 
times be supposed to disparage the Reformation. 

But, without paying attention to the fact, that the 
foulest heresies which history records were those of 
primitive times, (heresies, by whose side the errors of 
later days appear insignificant as the insects of tem- 
perate regions seem in comparison with the gigantic 
reptiles of the tropics) ; and without noticing the 
obvious conclusion, that they contradict the doc- 
trines of modern Rome, proving that the judgment 
was not fettered in ancient days, or else that the 
attempt to supersede reason is mischievous, advocates 
of papal dominion, our Traveller, as well as others, 
continue to affirm, that, in order to prevent error in 
doctrine and morals, there must be an unerring tri- 
bunal on earth, and man must be submissive to its 
decision. A few words upon this often repeated al- 
legation may not, perhaps, be altogether unseason- 
able. 

Supposing the Church of Rome infallible in her 
judgment, it would be well for those whose argument 
comprehends the notion that, of necessity, she must be 
so endowed, to inquire what benefits she would then 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



213 



be capable of imparting. The first would, probably, 
be such an exposition of doctrine as all must under- 
stand and confess to be, at the least, authentic. So 
little care has she had to supply such instruction, 
that even among the learned it is a matter of doubt 
how sound doctrine shall be promulgated. Some 
hold that the pope is infallible, and that whatso- 
ever he solemnly declares, is to be received as truth. 
Another party insists that a council, when assembled, 
is, in power, superior to the pope, and that where 
there is difference, (for such things have been,) the 
Council, even if it proceed to the Pontiff's deposi- 
tion, is to be obeyed. A third sect, who are said 
to observe the " juste milieu," maintain that popes 
may err, that councils may err, but that where both 
have been consenting, truth has been pronounced. 
Protestants have argued, that such acknowledged 
diversity of opinion marks out three great sects in 
the Church of Rome, as broadly distinguished, one 
from the other, as the most divergent communities 
of the Reformation ; the believer of one class having 
for a religion the bulls, the rescripts, the clecreta and 
decretals, of all who have assumed the tiara and been 
adored * as pope ; another taking as his rule of faith, 

* Let the reader who desires to satisfy himself as to " the 
adoration of the pope, consult Le Tableau de la cour de Rome,'' 
&c. The author of the Travels quotes, Vol. I. p. 297, a very 
indignant remonstrance addressed by Jerome, in reply to a 
charge of idolatry made by Vigilantius. " We do not worship, 
says the saint. We do not adore either the relics of martyrs, 
or angels, or cherubim or seraphim, — lest we serve the creature 
rather than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore. But we 



214 



GUIDE TO AN 



the canons of councils to which a full attendance of 
ecclesiastics gave authority, and rejecting papal de- 
crees, if at variance with the declarations to which 
he yielded assent ; a third, rejecting bulls not sanc- 
tioned by a council and councils not approved by a 
pope, and proposing as his rule of faith what has 

honor the relics of martyrs, that our minds may be raised by 
Him whose martyrs they are. We honor them, that this honor 
may be referred to Him who says, < He that receiveth you, re- 
ceiveth me.'" Again he exclaims indignantly, "Thou mad- 
man — who ever yet adored the martyrs ? Who ever yet fancied 
that a mortal was a God t* What is to be said, then, for the 
" adoration of the pope ?" Is such a ceremony tantamount to 
acknowledgment that " our Lord God the Pope" was a phrase 
of deliberate adoption. Infallibility should have prevented such 
awkwardnesses. Mr. Charles Butler's explanation is not suffi- 
cient. He writes, that " Father Eudsemon Joannes, in his 
Apology for Father Garnet, published in the year 1610, informs 
us, that he found the word < Deum' in some editions of the 
Gloss, « our Lord God the Pope,' and omitted in others ; that 
he therefore resolved to consult the Zenzelini manuscript, 
which, he says, might be seen every day, and that he found the 
real reading was our Lord the Pope." — Book of the Roman Ca- 
tholic Church. An explanation like this seems only to show how 
little dependance we can place on publications sent forth by the 
Church of Rome. Although the Church of England has no 
Congregation of the Index, the printer who mutilated a Scrip- 
tural passage by an omission, which, being contrary to the whole 
tenor of the Bible, could not lead to evil, was punished, and his 
error was corrected. But, in the infallible Church, with all its 
apparatus of councils and congregations, a blasphemy is suffered 
to appear in authorized books ; and, although more dangerous, 
because in accordance with that ceremony, " the adoration of 
the pope," which seems so signally to reveal " the man of sin," 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 215 

been delivered at a council, * wherein the pope pre- 
sided, by delegate or in person. In reply, it is said, 
that such distinctions are of small account — that the 

is suffered to remain undefended, unexplained, until Protestant 
sagacity exposes it. 

The papal ceremony is not the only object which the bolt 
from Jerome's quiver has struck down. It smites also the 
" Adoration of the Cross," and Doctor Murray's defence of it. 

* The estimate in which councils are now held seems to be 
much higher than that in which they were regarded in earlier 
times; Gregory Nazianzum, whose testimony the reader may 
remember as already quoted by the Irish Gentleman (which 
establishes the exercise while censuring the abuses of private 
judgment,) appears to have been as little satisfied with the exer- 
cise of infallibility. He says, Ep. ad. Proc. " that he avoids coun^ 
cils because he sees no happy results." The manner in which 
Bellarmine meets the difficulty of this phrase is too curious and 
instructive to be omitted. His answer is, " That in the time of 
Gregory the Great, " the multitude of heretical Bishops made it 
impossible to hold a lawful council." De. Cens. Lib. 2. His 
explanation of a passage in the works of St. Augustine is not 
less remarkable. He had said, Lib. De Baptismo, " that 
former councils may be corrected by those subsequent." 

1st. Perhaps Augustine understands by " former" illegitimate. 

2. Perhaps he means in " matter of fact," in which Councils 
may err. 

3. Perhaps he means in moral precepts which may of course 
be changed. Here are three fortasses oalled up to the defence 
of infallibility. Why not admit a fourth, and acknowledge it 
to be, perhaps, the opinion of Augustine that infallibility was 
not bestowed on man, and that, as may be collected from 
numerous passages in the Father's works, the Scriptures alone, 
of all books that may be read here on earth, contain truth 
without any mixture of error. 



216 



GUIDE TO AN 



differences do not involve matters of faith, and that 
Protestants have no right to cavil, since at all events, 
each of the three classes will agree, that whatever is 
to be rejected, the decrees to which the united sanc- 
tion of pope and council has been given, are of all 
men to be received. Protestants obstinately rejoin, 
that such agreement seems without authority. They 
say, if it had been definitively pronounced how true 
doctrine was to be authenticated, divisions like these 
could not exist ; that where private judgment is so 
straitly coerced, if there were a rule to decide the 
controversy, appeals would surely be made to it ; and 
they ask Roman Catholics what infallible testimony, 
or even what authoritative decree from pope and 
council they produce for the location of infallibility ? 
To this question their adversaries have not found it 
convenient to reply. 

Let it be supposed, however, that in the proceed- 
ings of a general council over which a pope presides, 
in person or by his legates, true doctrine is delivered. 
Where shall we find an accurate report of these im- 
portant and accredited proceedings ? What councils 
possessed authority to determine matters of faith ? 
In what books are their decisions faithfully recorded ? 
In the creed " of all Roman Catholics," as their pre- 
lates described it, the following profession is made— 
< 6 Likewise all other things delivered, declared, and 
defined by the sacred canons and general councils, 
and especially by the Holy Synod of Trent, I, without 
any doubt, receive and profess; and, at the same 
time, all things contrary thereto, and all heresies con- 
demned, rejected, and anathematized by the Church, I 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



217 



also condemn, reject, and anathematize." It will not 
be affirmed that the above clause contains any direc- 
tion whereby the votary can learn the names of the 
councils whose decrees he has thus solemnly pro 
mised to obey. When he expressed his consent " to 
admit 19 the Scriptures in the sense in which the 
Church explained them, he knew, at least, what he 
was professing, because the books of which it was 
determined thenceforth the canon of Scripture should 
consist, had been enumerated ; but for the councils, 
no similar provision was made ; and the young Irish 
Traveller, who has, with so earnest a desire of repose, 
entered into the harbour of a Church where trouble 
was never more to reach him, must re-trim his shat- 
tered bark, again commence his voyage of discovery, 
and, with the dread of perjury hanging like a thunder 
cloud above him, must not suffer his eyes to sleep, 
or his eyelids to take any rest, until he has discovered 
the canons and councils which he has solemnly 
undertaken, without any doubt, to receive and profess. 

When, by an exercise of private judgment, the 
legitimate councils have been discovered, the next 
difficulty is to procure an authentic copy of their 
proceedings. The inquirer enters upon this part of 
his task with the warning of Bellarmine to stimulate 
his exertions. " Of this matter," he says, " the 
books of the councils themselves discourse, which, 
nevertheless, have been negligently preserved, and 
abound in many faults, which must be corrected by 
reading the ancients,"* &c. When the Council of 



* Bel. De Cons. 



218 



GUIDE TO AN 



Trent had determined on its canon of Scripture, it 
thought proper also to determine what copy should 
be held authentic,* and pronouncing in favor of the 
vulgate edition, prohibited any from rejecting it.f 
No such provision has been made for the records "of 
councils ; and thus, the inquirer is left altogether to his 

* Cone. Tri. Sess. 4. 

f This was rather an awkward exercise of infallibility, the 
anathema lighting where it could not have been designed to fall. 
That the Canon of Scripture, declared by the Council of Trent, 
was adjusted less by truth than expediency, it is scarcely neces- 
sary to affirm. The inconsistency, however, of appending an 
anathema was rather more apparent than could have been anti- 
cipated. It is well known that Jerome regarded as canonical 
those Scriptures only which Protestants receive, and held a Pro- 
testant opinion respecting the Apocryphal books also. " As 
therefore," he writes, "the Church readeth Judith and Tobit, 
and the Books of the Maccabees, but does not receive them 
among the Canonical Scriptures, so likewise it may read these 
two books (the book of Jesus the son of Sirach and the Wisdom 
of Solomon) for the edification of the people, but not as of 
authority for proving any doctrine of religion." Prefat. in 
Sal. &c. All these books the Church of Rome accounts 
canonical, and pronounces accursed whosoever shall not sub- 
mit to her decision. And yet she has canonized Jerome. The 
bard in Madoc speaks of one who, if he saw his country 
wronged, 

" Would feel a pang in heaven." 
This is noble in poetry, but, in plain prose, it is rather into- 
lerant to shoot an anathema so high, and to hope that Jerome 
shall consent to remain under the curse of the Church of Rome, 
and in return assist her votaries with the effectual intercession 
of his prayers. 

There are countries wherein living saints and physicians have 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 219 

own judgment and industry to ascertain the sources 
from which he shall learn the doctrines he has sworn 
to embrace. 

Thus far, it is clear, infallibility has been bestowed 
to no purpose. It has not pronounced upon the 
claims of canons and councils to be received, nor 
has it stamped with a character of authenticity any 
works from which their enactments may be learned. 
Much and valuable information may be collected 
from the evidence of Roman Catholic Bishops, (espe- 
cially from that of Dr. Murray and Dr. Doyle,) taken 
before the Parliamentary Committees in the year 
1825 ; and serving to show, that, in the first essays 
of an inquirer into the doctrines of the Church of 
Rome, he has no better guidance than that of private 
judgment. What, then, is the use of infallibility? 
It allows, it may be, a choice to be made of instruc- 
tors who were not infallible, whose writings, sup- 
posing them originally pure, are now full of faults, 
and who may have taught what two parts in three of 
the unerring Church pronounce to be, not only not 
infallible, but to be false, and even heretical. 

It is a favourite figure of rhetoric with Roman 
Catholic controversialists, to demand — can the Bible 
speak ? and to say, that, if it could perform the mi- 
racle of uttering a viva voce answer to their enquiries, 
they would submit to its authority. They seem to 

had the walnut tree proverb applied to them, and been cudgeled 
into benignity. The Council of Trent is still more unceremo- 
nious, and like the Scottish chieftain, 

" Will right a wrong where'er 'tis given, 
Though it were in the court of heaven" 



> 



220 



GUIDE TO AN 



forget, that the decrees of councils are equally mute, 
although they have sworn, and without any reserva- 
tion, to receive them. They forget that tradition 
has not found a voice, and yet they profess most 
firmly to admit and embrace it. Of what use, then, 
has mute infallibility been ? Members of the Church 
of Rome profess to receive tradition. This, from its 
nature, it may be said, could not be committed to 
writing ; but an infallible direction might have been 
given to the sources from which it was to be received, 
and to the marks by which it was to be authenticated. 
No such direction has been afforded. Roman Catho- 
lics profess to admit Scripture according to the sense 
in which the Church receives it. The sense in 
which the Church receives it, she has never conde- 
scended to make known. They profess to receive, 
" without any doubt," " indubitanter," the councils 
and canons. The infallible Church has not dispelled 
the doubts which render it a matter of difficulty, 
perhaps it might be said a matter impossible, to 
ascertain the councils and canons which are the 
proper objects of the votary's engagement, and to 
know with certainty, or even a high degree of pro- 
bability, what they require of him to believe. What 
is, then, the benefit derived from this boasted infalli- 
bility ? Is it not just such a patron as Doctor Johnson 
has described — " one who looks with unconcern on 
a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he 
has reached ground, encumbers him with help." 

And, indeed, even after the first difficulties have 
been overcome, the help which infallibility offers 
can be accounted no better than an encumbrance, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 221 

superadding to the other disadvantages of Romanism 
a dogma which cannot be defended, and making a 
boastful profession, of which the blasphemy has not 
been extenuated by any compensating advantage. 
Scarcely any members of the Church of Rome will 
deny, that the necessity of that unerring tribunal of 
which they boast, arises out of the weakness and the 
liability to error of the human understanding. In- 
deed this seems acknowledged in the profession to 
receive Scripture agreeably to the interpretation of 
the Church. The defect implied in this declaration 
must be that in the mind of man, not imperfection in 
God's holy Word. Accordingly, it follows, that, 
unless the judgment of every individual were ren- 
dered infallible to understand, the gift, by which an 
unerring Church is supposed to propound true doc- 
trine, has been bestowed in vain. " If," it has been 
well-said, " to preserve the unity of the Church and 
to prevent schism, this infallibility has been vouch- 
safed, we ought to expect, that by this means, the 
unity of the Church has been preserved, and schism 
has been prevented. The fact is, that schism has 
been promoted, and the unity of the Church has 
been broken by it. Besides, even granting that the 
decisions of the Church of Rome are infallible, how 
can men be infallibly certain that they are right in 
the interpretations they have given ? But if any 
doubt should arise, it may be set at rest by another 
decision. This other decision is, however, liable to 
the same objection. And thus, it is within the range 
of possibility, that one infallible certainty may re- 
quire to be explained by a series of infallible cer- 



222 



GUIDE TO AN 



tainties without end : that is, that men may be left in 
total uncertainty upon the subject."* 

Thus, as the same writer observes, even suppos- 
ing that infallibility were lodged in the pope, it would 
be of little practical advantage. " Even granting 
that the pope may, by his infalliblity, correct mis- 
takes as fast as they occur, how can this exempt his 
decisions from the liability to be mistaken."-)- But 
those who adopt this compendious mode of issuing 
infallible decisions must embrace also the accompa- 
nying inconvenience of defending Bulls and Decre- 
tals, whose quarrel it is better not to take up ; while, 
for such as adhere to the safer rule of regarding 
nothing infallible which has not been decreed by 
pope and council, an inconvenience of another cha- 
racter, and perhaps of no less magnitude is provided. 
The difficulties in the way of summoning and col- 
lecting a council are too great to admit of the ex- 
pectation that such assemblages can be frequent ; and 
thus, while the liability to error would be the same, 
the means of correcting it would be far less at- 
tainable. 

I fear I have wearied my reader with an argument 
which may be accounted mere supererogation. The 
dogma of infallibility scarcely needs to be confuted. 
Like that race of ancient Eastern kings, whose abid- 
ing was in the voluptuous recesses of the palace, not 
on the throne or the tribunal, and who demanded 
only to be looked upon in order to be contemned, 
the profane dogma upon which the monarchy of the 

* Agency of Divine Providence, &c. p. 200. f Ibid. p. 201. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



223 



Church of Rome relies, withdrawn from the ne- 
cessities which require its presence, shrined and cur- 
tained front vulgar view, may retain respect ; but it 
is scarcely possible, that it can be contemplated 
steadily in the nineteenth century, "without being 
divested of its fictitious, and it would not be too 
much to add, blasphemous authority. 

While, therefore, the Church of Rome, claiming 
the reverence due to infallibility, leaves its votaries 
in total ignorance where this power resides — what it 
has clone — how its existence is proved ; it will be 
sufficient here to mention something which it has not 
done. It has not supplied a rule by which apostolic 
tradition can be distinguished. It has not enume- 
rated the councils and canons to be received, and 
taught how that which is spurious is to be separated 
from what is authoritative and true. And, above 
all, it has suffered eighteen hundred years to elapse 
without providing an explanation of Scripture, or 
making it possible for any member of the infallible 
Church, to read the Bible without inciirring a curse ; 
or for many to read it, without the added guilt 
of perjury. 



224 



GUIDE TO AN 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Resemblance between the Church of Rome and the Church 

of the Fathers — Lights — Incense, &c Worship of Relics, 

&c. — Basil — Origen — Chry sostom. 

The Irish Gentleman pursued his Travels even in 
dreams, and ascertained to his satisfaction, by the 
unimpeachable evidence of a vision, that in the early 
ages of the Church, the ceremonies of public worship 
differed in no important particular from the Mass of 
Townsend-street Chapel. By the same convincing 
testimony, he discovered that the service of the 
Church of England is different from that of primitive 
times, and that the angel who conducted Hermas 
was not acquainted with Luther. The agreements 
between the present and the past, upon which he 
most delights to dwell, are very edifying. There 
were lights in the Churches of ancient times, be- 
cause the darkness rendered them necessary. There 
are lights in Townsend-street Chapel at the present 
day, when no darkness requires them, but when, by 
their aid, young gentlemen may " read the touching 
story of the early Churches." There was incense 
" in subterranean places" of old, as a " means of 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



225 



dissipating unwholesome odours." Townsend-street 
Chapel is not a subterranean place, but the incense 
is not for this omitted. The Irish Gentleman sprinkles 
his forehead with water, and remembers the time when 
salt was mixed with it. He is present " when the mys- 
terious sacrifice begins," and remembers when it had 
a different beginning.* When at Townsend-street 
Chapel the priest repeats words, he remembers when 
in old times fruits were offered ; and when the priest 
says, " Lift up your hearts," and the people respond 
to him, " We have lifted them up to the Lord," he 
remembers St. Cyprian. 

According to this enumeration, the Roman Church 
at the present day resembles the Church of old in 
using lights and incense, but differs from her in using 
them unnecessarily — resembles her in the use, differs 
in the neglect of an expression ; and in one instance 
resembles her in using words which of old time offered 
first fruits on the altar, and which are still spoken, al- 
though they offer fruits no longer. But of all the re- 
semblances, that by which the Irish Gentleman is most 
deeply affected he finds in the " practice of beating 
the breast with the clenched hand at the Confiteor, 
and other parts of the service." The parallel pas- 
sage to this " craw- thumping," as the Irish Gentle- 
man tells us the practice is called, he does not give, 
but contents himself with noticing that St. Augustine 
said, " if we have not breasts, and, beating them, 

* I found myself reminded of the form of words Foris Cate- 
chumeni, in which invariably, as long as the discipline of the 
secret continued, kQ,~-Travels, Vol, I. p 181. 

Q 



226 



GUIDE TO AN 



say, 6 forgive us our sins,'" &c* Hence our Tra- 
vellers infers, that Augustine encouraged the practice 

* The Irish Gentleman prefers the testimony of St. Augus- 
tine to that of Scripture, else he would have referred to our 
Lord's parable of the publican. The minute observances of 
the Pharisee were, perhaps, likely to awaken disagreeable re- 
membrances, and to suggest an inconvenient comparison. The 
Travels speak of the coarse and contumelious term which has been, 
the author says, applied in Ireland to this practice of beating the 
breast. The term is infinitely less general in its use than our 
Traveller imagines ; indeed so unused, that I could undertake 
to say, I have not for very many years once heard it, and I reside 
where there is a dense Protestant population, with all classes of 
whom I have free and confidential intercourse. 

Nothing can be more unlike the practice of early times, and 
of climates not so temperate as ours, than the gentle notices 
with which, " in the Confiteor," as our Traveller observes, 
modern Roman Catholics salute their breasts. The " Con- 
fiteor" is a formulary, in which they confess to God, and to the 
blessed Mary, and to the holy St. Michael, &c. &c &c. that 
they have sinned. When the enumeration of the more honored 
saints has been completed, and provision made, by a compre- 
hensive sentence, for all who have not been specially named, 
the expression " through my fault" is repeated, and the right 
hand moves to the breast — again the same expression, and the 
corresponding gesture, a third time, and with as little of passion 
or solemnity as attends the idlest ceremonial, the parting blow 
is given^ Here the Irish Gentleman might have found dif- 
ference as well as resemblance — the resemblance being peculiar 
to no sect or class ; the difference one which his Church may 
claim as all her own. When consciousness of sin and a feeling 
of penitence has strongly affected man, to beat upon his breast 
is a natural expression of passion, which may be employed by 
all, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, whether publicans 
in the temple or Fathers in the Church, whose emotions are 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



227 



not more by precept than example, and concludes 
that the saint and the worshippers in Townsend-street 
Chapel beat in unison. 

Is not this rather childish? If it were desirable 
to compare the religious service now in use with that 
of the early ages, would it not be far better to consult 
the writings of primitive times for the forms of wor- 
ship then observed, than to seek them in the visions 
of distempered slumber ? It really is not quite 
candid, in one who had read Justin Martyr's apology, 
(and who had quoted from his description of Chris- 
tian worship on the Sabbath-day, a passage which 
appeared to serve his purpose,) to forget in sleep 
what the context had taught him, and substitute a 
very frivolous and visionary description in place of 
a communication sober and full of importance.* 

powerful, and whose habits and natures are demonstrative. No 
man, whatever his own habits and character may be, can look 
on such an act, performed in the spirit and feeling which sug- 
gests it, with any other feeling than of respect. But where it 
has become a mere form — where not the heart but the breast — 
or, to use our Traveller's citation, the " craw" is thought of and 
thumped — the resemblance to a practice which, in some cha- 
racters, springs out of true feeling, is the grimace of monkeys 
aping what they cannot feel or understand, rather than a gesture 
performed in a spirit and feeling which confer dignity on it, and 
associate it with the external acts of many pious men in all ages, 
in their solitary devotions. In a word, for the gestures which 
the energy of penitence may prompt, a resemblance can be 
found in ancient days ; for the " craw thumping" ceremony of 
the " Confiteor" our Traveller has found neither likeness nor 
countenance. 

* " On the day, as it is called, of the sun, there is an assem- 



228 



GUIDE TO AN 



The Irish Gentleman appears highly scandalized 
at the trivial subjects of contention between the 
Church of England and the Dissenters, and yet the 
nature of the topics on which he has himself been 

blage at the same place of those who live in the country and in 
town, and the commentaries of the apostles, or the writings of 
the prophets are read at convenient length. Then when the 
reader ceases, the presbyter or bishop (^oi<rr&>tr) delivers a dis- 
course in which he exhorts the people to the imitation of what 
is good. After this we all rise and pour forth our supplications, 
and, as I have said, when the prayers are ended, bread and wine 
and water are offered, and the presbyter, in like manner, offers 
the thanksgiving to his best ability (o<rn ^vvocfjutr dvrco), and the 
people assent, saying Amen. And a distribution and participation 
is made to each of those things which have been blessed, and to 
those not present they are sent by the deacons. Likewise, 
those who are more wealthy and are willing, each at his own 
discretion gives what he will, and what is thus collected is con- 
fided to the presbyter, whence he assists orphans and widows, 
and such as from sickness or any other cause are in need, those 
who are in bond, or strangers sojourning ; in a word, he is the 
guardian of all in necessity." — Apol. Lib. 2. Paris, 1636. p. 98. 

An expression in the above passage has been supposed to 
favor the notion that, in the time of Justin Martyr, there were 
no written liturgies. The inference is by no means just. In- 
deed the opposite conclusion would be the more natural, as one 
can scarcely be supposed to employ all his power on an address or a 
prayer which he might have previously prepared, but for which he 
trusts to the moment of delivery. At a very early age, we find 
it characteristic of Christianity that in the different Churches, 
forms of prayer were used, in all of which there was substantial 
agreement notwithstanding some unimportant differences, and 
the fact, that in each instance, the prayers were the best that 
could be framed does not certainly involve the inference that 
they were consequently extemporaneous. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN, 229 

pleased to dwell, might well have taught him, that it 
is the mind which gives consequence to the objects 
which it notices, and that what to one man may 
appear a very small thing, shall to another have a 
character such as compels him to respect it. The im- 
portance w T hich the Irish Gentleman attached to his 
resemblances need not be described. He carefully 
sought them out — he meditated upon them — he 
dreamed of them, — and yet the things which were 
of such moment to him, appeared so insignificant to 
the apologist Martyr, that, in his account of the 
Sabbath service, he has not even noticed them. 
What has he recorded ? The reading of the Holy 
Scriptures, so as that all may learn — the prayer in 
which all may join — the exhortation by which the 
assembly may be animated, and the eucharist in 
which the faith of all may be strengthened. These 
things the Traveller has not thought worthy of 
notice ; the lights, and incense, and sprinklings, and 
gesticulations, have not been described by the 
Martyr. The omissions and the observances in 
both cases, are highly characteristic. 

There must be many Roman Catholics to whom 
the defence set up for them by their Irish advocate 
will occasion deep mortification. Of their doctrines, 
he has no care but to find some writer of antiquity to 
whom they may plausibly be imputed ; for their dis- 
cipline, his sole apology is that it was observed in 
ancient Churches ; and yet, in the parallel he pro- 
fessed to institute, every thing which could interest 
or edify in the worship of primitive times, is care- 
fully omitted. Is this a tacit admission that with 



230 



GUIDE TO AN 



such observances, the Rites of the Church he would 
defend, have no similitude. Is all that could touch 
the heart and enlighten the understanding and build 
up faith and morals denied to popery, and can she 
resemble the ancient Church by such contrivances, 
only, as those in which compulsory converts from 
paganism were said to cover the idolatry which they 
cherished still, under an external of Christian forms?* 
In ancient days the minister, in a language which 
the people understood, read the Scriptures for their 
instruction. To day, in a language which they do 
not understand, the priest reads the Romish Missal. 
Ancient assemblies were rich in the incense of pious 
prayer ; a reasonable service. Townsend Street 
Chapel is contented with the less spiritual odours of 
burning censers. In the assemblies of old times, 
the Gospel was preached and hearts were converted ; 
now bells are vehemently tingled, and whether 
hearts be opened or not, breasts are knocked at. 
In ancient days, prayer and charity were inseparably 
united. Now the prayer is such that it may issue 
from a heart where malice dwells, and that it often 
deepens into ungodly and merciless imprecation. f In 
ancient times, there were lights of human contrivance 

* " The Churches were filled with the increasing multitude 
of these unworthy proselytes, who had conformed, from temporal 
motives, to the reigning religion; and whilst they devoutly 
imitated the postures, and recited the prayers of the faithful, they 
satisfied their conscience by the silent and sincere invocation of 
the Gods of antiquity." — Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. 28. 

■f " Anathema Omnibus Hasreticis. " 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



231 



when the light of heaven was denied, and unwhole- 
some vapours in caverns and tombs were dissipated 
by the smoke of incense. Now the splendour of the 
noon day sun is affronted with the sullen and sulky 
flames of unnecessary tapers, and the pure atmos- 
phere of the upper world is loaded with fumes for 
which no necessity is pleaded ; the light and the cen- 
ser being accounted better memorials of elder time 
than the truth of God's word, and the piety of pure 
worshippers ;* or, as if, under irresistible constraint, 

* The Irish Gentleman does not explain the ceremonies of 
his Church, as they were interpreted by earlier and more autho- 
ritative expositors. " In the use of lights and incense ; a prac- 
tice sneered at by the Protestant as pagan, I but read the touching 
story of the early Church, when her children hunted by the 
persecutes held their religious meetings either at night, or in 
subterranean places, whose gloom, of course, rendered the 
light of tapers necessary, and where the fumes of the censer, 
beside being familiar to the people among whom Christianity 
first sprung, were resorted to as a means of dissipating unwhole- 
some odours," Travels, Vol. I. p. 180. The approved expo- 
sition of lights and censers, is very different. " The two can- 
dles precede the Gospel, because the law and the prophets 
which predicted the Gospel came before it. The two candle- 
sticks are the two precepts of charity which are recommended 
in the Gospel. The two acolytes who bear them are Moses 
and Elias, between whom the Lord shone as the sun, in the 
mountain. Whilst the Gospel is read the wax lights are depo- 
sited on the floor, because the shadows of the law and the 
enigmas of the prophets, are revealed to the humble by the 
light of the Gospel. When the Gospel has been read, the 
candles are extinguished, whilst they are understood spiritually 
through the light of the Gospel." Bibliotheca Patr. Vol. 10. 



232 



GUIDE TO AN 



in these superfluous observances, confession is made 
that, where popery is, there is night, and that influences 
more unfriendly to life than the pestilent vapours of 
the Charnel house or the mine, are in her " cham- 
bers of imagery." 

It was said by one who knew neither the Church 
nor the country of which he spoke, that " popery 
was good enough for Ireland." A time will surely 
come, when Ireland shall have taught scorners to 
speak of her in more respectful language, but it is 
not from such apologies as those of the Traveller 
advocate, that good lesson is to be learned. He has 
assigned to the Church for which he pleads a place, 
which her most contumelious revilers would contemp- 

Protestant Churches think the reading of the Bible in a 
language understood by the people more conducive to know- 
ledge than the lighting or extinguishing wax candles, or even 
setting them on the ground. " The censer is carried before the 
Gospel, because Christ is declared sacrificed for us a sweet 
odour in the fire of the passion." u For the censer signifies the 
Lord's body ; when burning his divinity ; the fire the holy 
spirit. If the censer be golden, it denotes the Lord's divinity 
excelling all things ; if silver, his humanity adorned with all holi- 
ness ; if copper, it declares his flesh broken for us ; if iron, it 
insinuates his flesh dead ; conquering death in the Resurrection" 
Bibliotheca Patrum. 

Was the Irish Gentleman ashamed of foolery like this ? Has 
he exercised the forbidden right of private judgment and taken 
upon him to be his own interpreter? In truth he has not 
mended matters. In the approved version, the enigma of the 
wax candles and the censer, however absurdly and clumsily, 
were yet piously meant to be remembrances of Christ. To our 
traveller, they recall no memories but those of the charnel house. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 233 

tuously have appointed her, wherein the pious obser- 
vances by which the primitive Church made her 
character and her usefulness known, are not found, 
and where practices attributed to her, but which in 
her own person or in the testimony of approved ex- 
positors, she never condescended to notice, are most 
ostentatiously paraded. He has claimed for th$w 
Romish Church alliance with primitive Christianity, 
(a relation of dependance confessed, with laudable 
humility, by a contrite supplicant to the Lord, but 
utterly disgraceful to the Irish Gentleman's cause,) 
entitling her not to sit at meat and share in council, 
to participate in what is edifying and holy, but to 
receive and be contented with what had been re- 
jected or unregarded ; the dependance of " dogs" 
who " feed on the crumbs that fall from their mas- 
ter's table." Indeed it is not unfair to affirm, that 
according to the Irish Gentleman's report the trea- 
sures of Christian antiquity, have been divided, and 
that the Church of England has been contented to 
receive those possessions of which God's word al- 
lowed, relinquishing all the glitter of " attractive 
paganism," to her more gaudy-minded rival. 

But, as may also be collected from the Travels, it 
is doing injustice to the Church of Rome, to think 
her paganism confined to the practice of lighting 
torches in the day, (a practice indeed not held, 
in pagan times, very characteristic of sobriety) or 
to the worship of which smoke is so essential an 
ingredient, or the sprinkling of mingled salt and 
water. There are proofs more important even 
than these, that the genius of ancient Rome has 



234 



GUIDE TO AN 



returned to her habitation. The Travels contain a 
list of " popish abominations/'* (Abominations is 
the word ; Quid vetat ridentem) in which certain 
doctrines of the Church of Rome are plainly des- 
cribed, and for which a justification is sought in tes- 
timonies taken from early Christian and modern infi- 
del writers j- It would be a very unnecessary and 
no doubt unacceptable labor, to pay these " Abomi- 
nations" the compliment of a formal review, but a 
brief moment may not be misapplied in glancing at 
the species of proof, on which a defender of the 
Church of Rome, is contented to rest her preten- 
sions. 

* Travels, vol. I. p. 47. Title of Chapter vii. 

f " It is by those, indeed, who are not in communion with 
either of the contending parties, that the question between them 
has the best chance of being disinterestedly decided ; and, on 
this principle, the testimony of Gibbon may be thrown into 
the same scale as that of Socinus ; the infidel, no less than the 
heresiarch having professed his inability to withstand the weight 
of historical evidence that, within the first four or five cen- 
turies of Christianity, most of the leading doctrines of popery 
were already introduced, in theory and practice." — -Travels 
Vol. II. p. 51. 

The Irish Gentleman finds the testimony of Gibbon service- 
able and recommends it, ascribing to its author that " impartial 
indifference" for which he had himself taken credit. If there 
were no such standard as the Bible, and religions were like rival 
arte, they might appeal to the judgment of an infidel, according 
to the principle on which a blind man was appointed to decide 
between statuary and painting. Having a law and a testimony, 
Protestants cannot betake themselves to a less august tribunal. 
At the same time, they may avail themselves of the Irish Gen- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 235 

1. Image worship. — Tertullian says that the image 
of Christ was painted on the sacramental cup. St. 

tleman's concession, and say to him that his chosen umpire, 
Gibbon, has pronounced in their favor. True, he testifies that 
many or most leading doctrines of popery had been introduced 
before the end of the fifth century, but with no less distinctness 
affirms that they were not known in the first. With equal plain- 
ness he pronounces them corruptions of the religion taught by 
Christ and his apostles, and even calls up a vision such as that 
of the young Traveller, but for the purpose of exhibiting in 
very vivid colours, the adulterations which Christian doctrine 
had undergone by its dalliance with heathenism. It may form 
a good sequel to the Irish Geutleman's dream of religion in the 
third century. 

M The imagination, which had been raised by a painful 
effort to the contemplation and worship of the universal cause, 
eagerly embraced such inferior objects of adoration, as were 
more proportioned to its gross conceptions and imperfect 
faculties. The sublime and simple theology of the primitive 
Christians was gradually corrupted ; and the monarchy of hea- 
ven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded 
by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to 
restore the reign of polytheism. 

As the objects of religion were gradually reduced to the 
standard of the imagination, the rites and ceremonies were 
introduced that seemed most powerfully to affect the senses 
of the vulgar. If, in the beginning of the fifth century, Tertul- 
lian, or Lactantius, had been suddenly raised from the dead, to 
assist at the festival of some popular saint, or martyr; they 
would have gazed with astonishment, and indignation, on the 
profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual 
worship of a Christian congregation. As soon as the doors of 
the church were thrown open, they must have been offended by 
the smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the glare of 



236 



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Clement of Alexandria, also, " recommended to 
Christians to wear the figure of a Jish* engraven on 
their rings." — We may leave image worship with its 
defender. 

2. Worship of relics. — The citations are more 
numerous. One I select because it sets the doc- 
trine respecting this " abomination" in a fuller 
light than is usually thought becoming. " Basil. — 
If any one suffer for the name of Christ, his remains 
are deemed precious ; and if any one touch the bones 
of a martyr he becomes partaker in some degree of 
his holiness, on account of the grace residing in 
them. Wherefore precious in the sight of God is 
the death of his saints. Serm. in Psalm cxv." Travels, 
Vol. I. p. 60. The doctrine, we may infer, of the 
Church of Rome is in unison with this superstition, 
" Any one who touches the bones of a martyr be- 
comes partaker of his holiness." I was of opinion 
that the privilege of the well-known burying ground 
in the County of Wicklow was not formally and fully 
recognized, and when I heard of the eager conten- 
tions of rival processions, because each grave could 

lamps and tapers, which diffused, at noon-day, a gaudy, super- 
fluous, and in their opinon, a sacrilegious light. If they ap- 
proached the balustrade of the altar, they made their way 
through the prostrate crowd, consisting for the most part of 
strangers and pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the vigil of 
the feast ; and who already felt the intoxication of fanaticism, 
and, perhaps, of wine. — Decline and Fall, 628. 

* The Greek word contained Initials representing our Sa- 
viour's name and office. Travels, vol. I. pp. 44. 303. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



237 



ensure heaven to no more than seven inhabitants, 
the eighth, perhaps, not touching the bones of the 
buried martyr, I fondly thought, that the strife 
which often gave companions to the departed friend, 
sprung out of the superstitions of an uninstructed 
people, not from the acknowledged tenets of their 
Church. Now the doctrine is avowed. Justly Rome 
holds the apostles and evangelists in disesteem. They 
gave to the world their dangerous books, when they 
took away a far surer and more compendious mode of 
salvation, in burying the first martyrs body. Nar- 
rowly, no doubt, the canonized Ignatius escaped 
excommunication. Had the deacons, who accompa- 
nied him, been as uncharitable as he, it would not 
be proper to say where his criminal prayers and the 
censure of an offended Church would have conveyed 
him. So the doctrine of the Church is, that any one 
who touches the bones of a martyr becomes par- 
taker of his sanctity. 

" It is the bright day that brings forth the adder." 
The time is not long passed, since to impute to 
the Church of Rome doctrines such as her advocate 
challenges old authority to brand upon her, would 
provoke a pause of silent indignation from her chil- 
dren, or most vehement protestations against the 
cruel and calumnious misrepresentation. A change 
has come, and the advocate" of the Irish people and 
the Church of Rome makes it his boast, that they 
believe and she teaches most profane and disgusting 
superstitions. But Basil was no less superstitious? 
The relic worship of the Church of Rome would never 
perhaps have been confessed, if the precedent of the 



238 



GUIDE TO AN 



Saint's example could not be pleaded in its favor. It 
is not upon the practices of modern times censure 
should fall. The Irish Gentleman, if in error, is 
wrong with a light of the early Church, and, for his 
companion's sake, he should be pardoned. 

I wish it were as easy to free Basil from all charge 
of superstition as it is to exculpate him from our 
young Traveller's unguarded accusation. Indeed it 
is rather strange, that the editor who corrected his 
friend's error in falsely ascribing to that Father, the 
passage immediately following the extract I have 
transcribed, did not take the trouble to tell him that 
here also his citation was unfaithful. Every one who 
has had opportunity to examine editions of Basil's 
works has, of course, seen that the reference append- 
ed to the citation, bears testimony against it. It is 
extracted professedly from his sermon on the cxvth 
Psalm, and no such sermon is to be found. The 
reader may, perhaps, imagine that by this evasive 
reference the Irish Gentleman wished to give an air 
of ridicule to his entire performance, and to insinuate 
that superstitious tenets are ascribed to the ancient 
worthies of the Church as one might impute profli- 
gacy to Mr. Wilberforce, or inconsistency and want 
of public principle to Lord Farnham* or Sir Robert 

* The name of this distinguished nobleman has been associ- 
ated by the author of the Travels with the events of what has 
been called the second Reformation in Ireland. The conduct 
which an imperious sense of duty constrained his lordship to 
observe upon that memorable occasion was such as can never 
cause him to feel pain. When the history of the " second 
Reformation" can be written, it will record events and circum- 
stances which demonstrated the weakness of the Church of 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 239 

Harry Inglis. It is not so ; our Traveller has been 
deceived, and has quoted the expressions from Basil 
as if they should really have been ascribed to him. 
The facts I apprehend to have been, that the pas- 
sage, recited in " the Travels," was found in a 
work which a certain Simon Metaphrastes professed 
to have compiled from the discourses of Basil — that 
the scribe who contracted to supply extracts for 
the defence of the Irish faith, thinking the worker 
in Mosaic not so creditable an authority as the 
saint whose opinion he was bound to furnish, hav- 
ing seen in the margin of the scrap sermon a re- 
ference which he hastily transcribed, appended it to 

Rome, and betrayed the nature of the influences on which she is 
dependent for her seeming authority, — "signs of the times," 
which were not discerned. The Cavan conversions are spoken 
of with ridicule by the superficial as well as by those who have 
been too successful in misdirecting public opinion. Still they can- 
not sneer away the fact that in the space of a few weeks more than 
500 persons in one parish renounced the errors of the Church of 
Rome, that more than five hundred remained faithful to their 
professions, and that in not a single instance has a conversion 
been accounted for as effected by pecuniary considerations. 
But it is asked, why are there no more conversions — the cur- 
rent had set in favorably — why has it ceased to flow ? The an- 
swer belongs rather to politics than religious controversy — this 
is not the place for it. But thus much may be said. Popery 
is unsound at its heart's core. In its disordered bulk, there is 
a principle which once might have come out in healthy Pro- 
testantism, which now, it is to be feared, has taken the character 
of infidelity. The prospects of the infallbile Church will soon 
be ascertained. The humours which are drawn to the surface 
are not the most dangerous. 



240 



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his extract without further enquiry, for the vindica- 
tion of the Fathers fame, and the exposure of the 
young Irishman's imprudence. There is no doubt a 
Homily on the cxvth Psalm, in an edition of Basil's 
works, but the title under which it is found, does 
not prove recommendatory, being as follows : " Ap- 
pendix to the first volume of the Works of Basil the 
Great, containing certain works falsely ascribed to 
him"* — No more on the worship of relics. 

3. Invocation of Saints. — On this subject, the 
Travels contain nothing of great moment as testi- 
mony, but much instruction as to the art of pre- 
paring evidence for a particular occasion. For ex- 
ample, Hilary is made to say, " According to Ra- 
phael, speaking to Tobias, there are angels who 
serve before the face of God, and who convey to him 
the prayers of the suppliant. It is not the character 
of the Deity that stands in need of this intercession, 
but our infirmity does." From the passage, as it is 
thus read, and the heading of the section in which it 
it is found, three things might rationally be inferred. 
1st, That the Book of Tobit was to be accounted as 
authority 2dly, That saints intercede for us. 3dly, 
That we are justified in invoking them. But, between 
the words " suppliant" and " It," a sentence occurs in 
the original of which we might say that it is " ne- 
cessary for the better understanding." It is as fol- 
lows : 6 < This is said, that if we wished to account 

* Appendix Tomi Primi Operum Basilei Magni complec- 
tens opera quoedam ei falso adscripta. — Benedictine Edition. 
Paris, 1730. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 241 

them (angels) to be the eyes, or the ears, or the 
hands, or the feet of God, we may have the autho- 
rity of no improbable intelligence." The infirmity 
to be aided is the weakness of our imagination— the 
intercession is not supplication — the Book of Tobit 
has the authority of no improbable intelligence, and 
the invocation of saints is warranted and recom- 
mended to such and such only as suppose eyes, and 
hands, and ears, and feet, to have consciousness and 
will, distinct from that of the Being to whom they 
belong, and who make it their practice, because 
they fear to address a superior here in earth, to 
breathe their silent supplications to his foot, and think 
such a mode of petitioning the most likely to be 
successful. Origen is quoted in favor of invocation 
also, and two passages are adduced from him with 
which I mean to conclude this subject. One is from 
his Commentary on the Canticles. "We may be 
allowed to say of all the holy men who have quitted 
this life, retaining their charity towards those whom 
they left behind, that they are anxious for their sal- 
vation, and that they assist them by their prayers, 
and their meditation with God." For it is written in 
the Books of the Maccabees, " This is Jeremiah the 
prophet of God, who always prays for the people." 
Lib. 3. in Can. Cant.* The above is taken from a 
work, of which I have been able to find no more 
than a Latin translation. The extract is not very 
correctly given. The words imputed to Origen are 
to the effect, that if we say the Saints, &c. " it will 

* Travels, Vol. I. p. 57. 

R 



242 



GUIDE TO AN 



not be inconvenient" ascribing no higher authority 
to the Apocryphal Scripture. And these are pas- 
sages adduced to countenance the profession of faith, 
" that the Saints, reigning together with Christ, are 
to be venerated and invoked, and that they offer 
prayers," &c. &c. ; and also to the denunciation, that 
whoso does not make this profession, cannot be saved. 
The Fathers claim, on behalf of weak human nature, 
that, if the Saints be imagined to take a continued 
interest in the world they have left, the imagination 
may be permitted ; but the Church of Rome says, if 
you have not such a belief, and do not add to it an 
invocation which divides Christ's honor, you cannot 
be saved. 

But there is a passage from Origen, in which he 
directly invokes the Saints. " I will fall down on 
my knees, and, not presuming, on account of my 
crimes, to present my prayer to God, I will invoke all 
the Saints to my assistance ; and ye Saints," &c. — 
Lib. 2. de. Job.* Is not this invocation ? Yes ; 
but not of Origen. The three books on Job are not 
Origen's. They are published with his works by 
the Benedictine Editors, but published as the writ- 
ings of one whose name is not known, and who 
certainly was not Origen.f 

On this subject it is unnecessary to add more than 
one sentence. To believe that those departed in the 
faith and fear of God are interested in the welfare of 
human beings, sharing in the joy that is felt over 
one sinner that repenteth, is altogether different from 
a belief that it is right to pray to any but God. 

* Travels, Vol. I. p, 58. f Orig. Ben. 1733. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



243 



4. Prayers for the Dead. — In the citations to 
prove this practice, nothing is more remarkable 
than the want of success in discovering some support 
for the doctrine of Purgatory. Indeed the first quo- 
tation, that of Cyril, terminates just at the point 
where an expression occurs, which proves decisively 
that the doctrine of a purgatory could not then have 
been received. " I wish to persuade you by an 
example ; for I know that many say, how is the soul 
profited, when having departed from this world with 
sin or without." Here was an occasion on which, 
if purgatory were the doctrine of the times, the 
answer was ready. Indeed, were such a doctrine 
held, the doubt could not have arisen.* 

I shall add here but a 5th " abomination," — Auri- 
cular Confession. Even Voltaire is enumerated 
among the authorities by whom this practice has 
been approved. I have no doubt, that, under due 
regulations, and as disclosures are frequently made 
to the minister in Protestant communions, the prac- 
tice may be useful ; but I have an insuperable 
objection to the theory of confession in the Church 

* The Church of England has pronounced no other judg- 
ment on the custom of prayer for the dead than the tacit cen- 
sure of excluding such prayers from the liturgy. She found 
no warrant for them in God's Word, and knew that there was a 
strong tendency towards them in man's nature ; but seeing how 
they led towards that doctrine from which eventually sprang so 
much encouragement to vice and irreligion, she afforded no 
encouragement to a practice which may or may not be conve- 
nient, but for which Scripture cannot be pleaded, and which has 
been abused to very evil purposes. 



244 



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of Rome. The priests are to become casuists— they 
must read to be instructed, and the works in which 
information is to be acquired, are such as demand 
much castigation. Indeed, if the advocates of Pro- 
testant principle could imitate the profligate example 
which has been set them, and, regardless of public 
morals, would give parents and husbands an oppor- 
tunity of seeing through what unutterable pollutions 
preparation may be made for the confessional, 
doubts would soon arise, whether, to one class of in- 
dividuals at least, there was not more of danger than 
of advantage to be expected from penitential com- 
munications. 

I would not be supposed to insinuate that " the 
Fathers are pure from objectionable doctrine, or even 
from that paganism by which the literature of their 
times had been influenced.* When it is made a 
boast, that at an early period religion stooped to 
attract the Heathen, by an assumption, not less than 

* I do not think an ingenious and industrious man could be 
at any loss to find in the eloquence of modern orators whose 
Christianity has never been called in question, expressions as 
strong and as seemingly favorable to Popery as any genuine 
passage adduced from the early Fathers in defence of "the 
Abominations." That Chrysostom and Basil, and indeed one 
might say generally, the preachers of primitive times, did not sub- 
due their fancies, and adjust their expressions according to the 
exact rules of a severe logic, should not be denied, and that, in 
speaking of the memorials of the dead and the glorious " hierar- 
chy of heaven," they did not suppress emotions by which the 
sympathies of the congregation could be awakened, was no 
more than nature would teach us to expect. The necessary 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 245 

meretricious, of pagan rites and ceremonies, it is not 
difficult to infer disastrous consequences. It was an 
unnatural alliance, and one in which all that was 
weak and passionate in human nature lent assistance 
to the principle of evil. The unhappy results to 
religion — at least the religion of Rome — have been 
permanent. 

Non equitem dorso, non fraenum depulit ore. 

It is a bad defence to make for the paganism of 
modern Rome, that there were individuals more than 
a thousand years since, who also held erroneous 
opinions. 

Nil agit exemplum quod litem lite resolvit. 

When we ask, why do you worship images, it is 
no answer to say that Clement of Alexandria recom- 
mended the fashion of setting the figure of a fish in 

consequence was, that the discourses of the Fathers are not free 
from the common fate of almost all oratory which aptly ad- 
dressed to an excited audience, has something of exaggeration 
and extravagance to an unimpassioned reader. " A friendly 
eye should never see such faults." I do not hesitate to 
affirm, that the sermons of the late Robert Hall, whose Pro- 
testantism, no man will question, contain passages as much to 
the purpose of the Irish Gentleman as those which have been 
honored by his selection. We do not take the eloquence of 
that distinguished individual for more than he intended it. 
Ought we before the time, take account of " every idle word," 
which may have been spoken by orators of no less excitable 
temperament, and exposed too, to the added temptations of that 
matchless and seductive language of which it has been- finely 
said, " that it gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a body 
to the abstractions of philosophy. 



246 



GUIDE TO AN 



rings. Why do you burn torches in the day? 
Because the ancients burned them at night. Why 
pollute pure air with the smoke of censers ? Be- 
cause the ancients used incense where the air was 
bad. Why do you say, that if a man do not believe 
in a purgatory, he must be damned ? Because there 
were men in old times who thought that it was per- 
mitted to pray for the dead. Why cannot they be 
saved, who do not believe that dead men should be 
addressed in prayer? Because there were in old 
time, some who thought it not culpable to believe, 
that the departed were still interested in our welfare. 
I cannot continue the enumeration. If the dogmas 
of the present day, had a counterpart in ancient 
error, it would afford them no defence. It is not a 
noble culprit who wishes to have associates in his 
condemnation. Yet of such a nature is the Irish 
Gentleman's defence. He is contented if he can 
prove the Fathers pagans. 



Even if the doctrines taught in ancient times were 
fully as unscriptural as those by which the Church 
of Rome is distinguished, a better excuse should be 
sought out, if it could possibly be found, than that 
which merely assigns an origin to evil; but when 
the effort is vain, to fasten upon the writers of early 
times so grievous an imputation ; when it is found 
that errors of comparatively a venial character, (aris- 
ing out of the weaknesses of nature, and to which, 
those who first held them supplicated indulgence 



Go on, and let me see 
All that disgraced my betters, met in me. 




IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



247 



rather than demanded assent,) have been magnified 
and distorted into " abominations," which are pro- 
mulgated by the sword, and the dungeon, and the 
stake, where Popery is strong, and by the menace 
of everlasting damnation where she is feeble — it is 
not too much to say, that the endeavour to bring 
under the same judgment the Fathers of the fifth 
century and the Fathers of Trent, is, at the least, as 
unjustifiable, as it would be in the modern historian 
who should confound the principles of English Free- 
dom with those of French Revolution; or identify 
Mr. Fox and his supporters in the British House of 
Commons, in feelings and in crimes, with Robes- 
pierre and his associated monsters during the Reign 
of Terror. 



248 



GUIDE TO AN 



CHAPTER XV. 

Ancient Faith of Ireland — Singular method of Defence- 
Church of Ireland independent — Baronius — Lanigan — 
Adrian's grant. 

There is not throughout the two volumes of the 
Travels a more memorable passage than the Epistle 
Dedicatory. " To the people of Ireland, this defence 
of their ancient national faith, is inscribed by their 
devoted servant, the editor of Captain Rock's Me- 
moirs." The people of Ireland are not scrupulous 
in their choice of a defender, or as to the nature of 
their defence, if they accept the champion. Through- 
out the seven hundred pages which follow this am- 
bitious dedication, the existence of the Irish peo- 
ple and of their faith seems almost forgotten, and 
among the few exceptions to a total oblivion of 
their cause, none are laudatory ; while one is a sar- 
casm too cruel and contemptuous to need the in- 
crease of bitterness it receives, because an " own 
familiar friend" has spoken it. " When I heard emi- 
nent, learned, and in the repute of the world, estima- 
ble men, representing the faith, which I had had the 
misfortune to inherit as a system of damnable idola- 
try, whose doctrines had not merely the tendency 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



249 



but the prepense design to encourage imposture, 
perjury, assassination, and all other monstrous crimes, 
" / was already prepared by the opinions I had myself 
formed of my brother papists, to be but too willing a re- 
cipient of such accusations against them from others." 
What a client and cause must an advocate be supposed 
to have, who could avow these insulting suspicions. 

But, perhaps, it was in the person of an adversary 
the Irish Gentleman stigmatised his Church ; perhaps 
he spoke in raillery and only to give higher zest to the 
poignant praises which were to follow. He has left 
no such explanation or defence. The taunt seems 
to have been uttered and forgotten; the cause of 
Ireland abandoned. All parts of the world " from 
Gades to the Ganges" were honoured with the tra- 
veller's visits. All libraries were explored ; all lan- 
guages (I had almost said) gave their aid to enlarge 
the traveller's stores ; — the tongue alone of the nation 
whose faith he would defend, is not heard among 
them ; neither has the learning of his country obtained 
the tribute of a passing praise. Upon the character 
of those whose defence he volunteered, he has flung 
one withering taunt — on the faith w r hich they pro- 
fess, he has darted a gleam of lurid suspicion, and 
having thus betrayed his associates and their cause, 
he abstains from pleading a single circumstance to 
mitigate the execration his disclosures were calcu- 
lated to draw down on his unfortunate country. 

And this is called a " defence" and professes to 
have been made by a " devoted servant." There is 
so much gravity in the style of the Irish Gentleman's 
performance that it seems hazardous to pronounce it 



250 



GUIDE TO AN 



a covert assault upon the outworks of the Church 
of Rome : and yet there is much in the Travels to 
encourage such an idea. In the first place no pecu- 
liarity of that Church is defended. The utmost that 
is even professedly attempted, is to show that some 
of the doctrines now held by the Church of Rome, and 
condemned by protestants, were approved by certain 
writers of antiquity, whose opinions may be learned 
in works ascribed to them, and published after pass- 
ing under the necessary revision. Thus, he endea- 
vours to show that the sprinkling with water, the 
practice of crossing — the action of striking the 
breast are orthodox and venerable. This, it is evi- 
dent, is no defence; even were it established, it 
could prove no more, (if the observances are fri- 
volous or forbidden) than that the present is not 
the first age of folly — but for the weightier matters 
of the law, the poor recommendation of such cor- 
respondence has not been provided. The " impos- 
ture, the perjury, the assassination, and the other 
monstrous crimes" which the defender suspected to 
constitute the morals of Popery when he could know 
her only in the characters of her children, and which 
when he had fuller acquaintance with her creed, he 
did not think it convenient to disclaim — he has left 
without a parallel. 

There is, however, a species of favor shown to 
the ancient creed of Ireland. It has been protected 
alike from the patronage and the suspicions of its 
defender. It has been but once alluded to, and that 
in the dedication. While by a species of forced 
conscription, the Churches of primitive times, on 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



251 



the Continent, in Africa, in Asia, have furnished 
materials for the " defence," the " ancient faith" of 
Ireland has not contributed a single similitude in 
acknowledgment that it made common cause with 
popery. The exemption is the more remarkable 
because is it not wholly exclusive. The Bible too 
has been spared, the few and unimportant references 
to scripture only marking and rendering emphatical 
the systematic abstinence to which they form an 
exception. This is a defence — to be comprehended 
in the same act of oblivion with the word of God, and 
excluded from all participation in the practices and 
principles to which the defence of the Irish apologist 
has proved damnatory. 

But, although the " national faith" has been thus 
effectually guarded from joining with the Church of 
Rome in her challenges, and being convicted by her 
advocate ; all who love the memory of ancient days 
have just reason to complain, that the Church of 
Ireland had not the benefit of more than a tacit defence 
against the suspicions cast upon a creed which has 
been most falsely imputed to her. Our early history 
is not inglorious. Ireland had once 1 6 a national 
faith," a church ordered in the fair freedom of an inde- 
pendent establishment, and although the Irish Gen- 
tleman may have found it unsuitable to the character 
of his work to allude to a subject on which the pride 
of his countrymen might honorably rest, there are 
some to whom a brief but more direct " defence of 
of the ancient, national faith" even from one who has 
no such recommendation as the editor of Captain 
Rock's Memoirs can boast, may not be unacceptable. 



252 



GUIDE TO AN 



There are one or two allegations respecting the 
ancient estate of Ireland so generally acknowledged, 
that it would be a waste of time to attempt establish- 
ing their accuracy. One is, that Christian mission- 
aries were sent from this country to various parts of 
the world, and that the schools of Ireland were in 
such repute as to attract numerous students of " di- 
vers tongues and nations." The name, also, by 
which Ireland was distinguished, was " the Isle of 
Saints," an appellation not boastfully assumed by 
her own children, but willingly conferred upon her 
by the reverence of foreigners whom she had in- 
structed.* These are matters respecting which it 
would be only a waste of time to offer proof. It is 
also a matter of notoriety to all acquainted with our 
national history, that the reputation of its ecclesiasti- 
cal estate was preserved without a blot, until the 
unsettlement effected by the descents and incursions 
of predatory barbarians, had sapped the strength of 
the country, and corrupted the principles of the 
people. 

But while all this is admitted, there is a point 
which must be proved, namely, that, during a por- 
tion of the time when Ireland was accounted the 
Isle of Saints, while her schools were thronged with 
foreigners, while her missionaries w r ent forth into 
every region and all Christendom honored her, she 
was not in communion with the Church of Rome. 

I do not enter into an examination of the question, 
whether the patron saint of Ireland had a " mission" 



* Prophetically given, some say, in Pagan times. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 253 

as it is called, from the see of Rome. This is a matter 
which I may consider settled by one who was better 
qualified to illustrate the antiquities of his country, 
than any writer of modern times. But he is re- 
moved, and were I to think of prosecuting his enqui- 
ries, his place would, indeed, be most unworthily oc- 
cupied. I abstain also from reference to testimonies 
said to have been borne by Bishops and Presbyters 
of the Irish Church in primitive times, or to discre- 
pancies in doctrine between their creed and that of 
the Church of Rome. Such an examination could 
not be brief if it were at all to be respected. Testi- 
monies favorable and testimonies adverse to Protest- 
ant doctrine by one not scrupulous in his selection, 
could be produced in superfluous and bewildering 
abundance, and on the entire mass of evidence, the 
result of careful enquiry, it is probable, would draw 
down suspicion. I confine myself, therefore, to a his- 
torical statement which seems to furnish irrefragable 
proof of the independence of the Church of Ireland. 

The following passage is from the history of the 
Cardinal Baronius. " With one consent (junctis 
animis) all the Bishops who were in Ireland stood 
up for the defence of the " Three Chapters." They 
added also this iniquity, that when they found the 
Roman Church to have equally adopted the con- 
demnation of those chapters, and to have strength- 
ened by its consent the fifth Council, they separated 
from it, and joined themselves to the schismatics 
who were in Italy, or in Africa, or in other regions, 
haughty in a vain confidence that they stood up for 
the Catholic faith, while defending the acts of the 



254 



GUIDE TO AN 



Council of Chalcedon." * The importance which the 
Cardinal attached to this separation, the following 
expression will attest. " It happened," he says, u by 
the envy of a foul daemon, that while the Gallican 
Church was illustrious in so many lights, the Church 
in Ireland, which had hitherto been well ordered, 
was covered with thick darkness, suffering shipwreck 
whilst it did not follow that bark of Peter which 
goes on before all, showing the way to the port of 
safety." Here, then, whatever Ireland may have 
previously been, it is most fully and clearly, and 
with an authority which cannot be gainsayed, de- 
clared, that she withdrew from communion with the 
Church of Rome ; that is to say, that she pro- 
nounced that Church alien from " the Catholic 
faith." The separation took place in the year 556, 
and, until Adrian the Fourth, by the sword of 
England, and dissension in Ireland, succeeded in the 
assertion of papal prerogative, our Church was na- 
tional and independent. 

It would appear as if strong efforts were made by 
the Church of Rome to win back the Irish into 
friendship and communion. At least we have to 
that effect the testimony of Baronius. He has cited 
passages from an Epistle of Gregory the Great to 
the Bishops in Ireland, soliciting them to be recon- 
ciled to the Church over which he presided. Gre- 
gory also sent a book, written, as he stated, by his 
predecessor Pelagius, but of which he was himself 
supposed to be the author, in defence of the pro- 

* Baronii, Ann. Cen. 556. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



255 



ceedings at the second Council of Constantinople. 
Of the argument enforced in this book, Gregory 
appears to have entertained a very high opinion, 
and says, that if, after reading it, the heads of the 
Irish Church continue unchanged, " they will show 
more of obstinacy than of reason." All, however, 
seems to have been ineffectual. No acknowledg- 
ment was obtained on the part of the Ecclesiastics 
in Ireland, in favor of the second Council of Con- 
stantinople ; nor was the object which Gregory pro- 
posed accomplished, although it was to win the 
Church of Ireland to be reconciled, not to bring it 
under subjection. 

Some members of the Church of Rome have de- 
nied that these solicitations of Gregory were ad- 
dressed to the Irish Bishops. In some editions of 
his works, the words " per Hiberniani'' have not 
been found; and it has been conjectured that the 
circumstances of the Bishops in Istria correspond 
better with the scope and character of the Epistle. 
It matters little to the main argument, how such 
matters are decided. That the Church of Ireland 
discontinued all connection with that of Rome, be- 
cause the Roman Church approved the second 
Council of Constantinople, has been placed beyond 
a doubt. If the old editions of Gregory's works are 
incorrect, and the more modern editions authorized 
in their omission of words which describe the Irish 
Bishops as those whom Gregory addressed, it follows 
only, that the documents on which the faith of 
Roman Catholics depends, are extremely uncertain, 
and that the Church of Ireland, in her revolt, or 



256 



GUIDE TO AN 



schism, (or whatever name the assertion of indepen- 
dence may receive,) was undisturbed by supplication 
to return, as she was unassailed by anathemas upon 
her breach of union. 

At the time when this formal separation took 
place, the Church of Ireland appears to have been 
held in honor, nor did its reputation, because of the 
breach, decline. The canons of the first four coun- 
cils, she had received ; against the acknowledgment 
of the fifth, she had remonstrated, and when ex- 
postulation proved ineffectual, she exercised the 
privilege of an independent Church and separated 
from those whom she could not persuade to be of 
one mind with her. For this, it does not appear 
that her schools were less frequented, or her mis- 
sionaries held in disesteem. The Church of Ireland 
had still not only a name that it lived, but also ho- 
norable testimonies that its ministration was effectual. 

It is to be observed, also, among the attestations 
to the character of the Irish Church, that her chil- 
dren adhered stedfastly to her discipline, even when 
they dwelt among those who censured their national 
observances. Thus Columbanus, subsequently to 
the date of the separation, " although living in 
France, continued to observe the Irish mode of 
computing Easter. Some Gallican Bishops," Lani- 
gan continues, " gave him a great deal of trouble 
on this account. Accordingly, he wrote a letter to 
the Pope, in which he strenuously defends the Irish 
system, and requests his decision on the question, 
telling him, however, that the Western Chicrches, 
meaning those of Britain and Ireland, will not agree 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 257 

to any thing contrary to the authority of St. Jerome, 
whom he considered as having approved of the cal- 
culation on which it was founded."* The Epistle 
in which this strong declaration is contained, setting 
the authority of a learned priest above that of the 
Bishop of Rome, and maintaining the dignity of the 
Irish Church, as not second to that of the Gallican 
or the Roman— at least denying the right of any 
Church to exercise authority over her,f — would not 
have been tolerated, if her separation had been ac- 
counted a guilty schism. 

Nor was it by adherence to points of discipline 
alone, the Irish Church was honorably distinguished. 
Her children not only maintained, in the stranger's 
land, the questioned observances of their national 
Church, but they dared to disregard the fashion by 
which Christian literature was degraded, and to be 
wise in a frivolous generation. The testimony of the 
historian Mosheim, although well known, is yet so 
pertinent to the occasion, and, may I add, so gratify- 
ing to one whose defence of the ancient faith would 
not be exactly in the spirit of the Irish Gentleman's 
apology, that I cannot refrain from transcribing it. 
" The Irish or Hiberiians, who in this century (the 
eighth) were known by the name of Scots, were the 
only divines who refused to dishonor their reason, 

* Lan. Ecc. Hist. Vol. II. p. 270. 

f This is the more correct expression. The testimonies are 
numerous, that the Bishopric of Rome was first in the order of 
precedence in the Western part of Europe. It was when that 
See added power to dignity, « mystery" was revealed. 

s 



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by submitting it implicitly to the dictates of authority. 
Naturally subtle and sagacious, they applied their 
philosophy, such as it was, to the illustration of the 
truth and doctrines of religion — a method which was 
generally abhorred and exploded in all other nations.'* 
From time to time, we can find in ecclesiastical his- 
tory proofs that the independence of the Irish Church, 
and its dignity, were vindicated, in the conduct of 
the Hibernians, during the eighth and ninth centu- 
ries. In the darkness that ensued, they became par- 
tially obscured, until in the beginning of the twelfth 
century the Church of Ireland was again, and in 
extraordinary circumstances, brought under the no- 
tice of the general reader. 

The grant of Adrian, to his countryman Henry 
the Second, is too well known to require or justify 
any prolonged detail. A few brief extracts from 
the Bull, upon which so important consequences 
waited, will be sufficient to explain its connection 
with the " defence of the ancient national faith." 
" There is no doubt," the Pope declares, " but that 
Ireland, and all the islands on which Christ the Sun 
of Righteousness hath shone, and which have re- 
ceived the doctrines of the Christian faith, do belong 
to the jurisdiction of St. Peter, and of the holy 
Roman Church, as your Excellency also doth ac- 
knowledge. And therefore we are the more solicitous 
to propagate the righteous plantation of faith in this 
land." No such doctrine as of the jurisdiction of the 
Roman Church was asserted, when Ireland, in a 
purer age, separated from communion with it. The 
solicitude " to propagate the righteous plantation of 



GUIDE TO AN 



259 



faith," &c. is strangely at variance with the testimo- 
nies which had in better times been borne to the 
faith and piety of the Isle of Saints. " We there- 
fore," the Bull in the same spirit declares, " with 
that grace and acceptance suited to your pious and 
laudable design, and favorably assenting to your 
petition, do hold it good and acceptable, th&t for 
extending the borders of the Church, restraining the 
progress of vice, for the correction of manners, the 
planting of virtue, you enter this island, and execute 
therein whatever shall pertain to the honor of God 
and welfare of the land, and that the people of this 
land receive you honorably, and reverence you as 
their Lord." 

Thus it is clear that Henry entered into Ireland 
for the purpose of " enlarging the borders of the 
Church." The condition, also, is well known, which 
the Bull recites, " that you are willing to pay from 
each house a yearly pension of one penny to St. 
Peter." If we have the testimony of a papal histo- 
rian, that there was a time when Ireland separated 
from Rome, and would not hold communion with 
her, much less acknowledge her superiority, we have 
here the vindictive corroboration of the Papal See 
authorizing a Norman Prince to " enlarge the borders 
of the Church," and thus declaring that those borders 
had not previously comprehended Ireland. 

Doctor Lanigan expresses an angry astonishment 
that Adrian should have listened to the representa- 
tions made in Henry's behalf, while he must have 
had positive knowledge that they were incorrect. 
John of Salisbury, he says, "addressing the pope 



260 



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in the king s name, asked him for permission for his 
master to take possession of Ireland, for the purpose 
of enlarging the boundaries of the Church, of an- 
nouncing to unlearned and rude persons the truth 
of the Christian faith, and extirpating the weeds of 
vice from the field of the Lord."* The historian 
utters an indignant exclamation, and proceeds, " It 
is strange that the pope could have listened to such 
stuff, while he knew that Palliums had been sent, 
only three or four years before that time, to Ireland, 
by his patron and benefactor, Pope Eugenius the 
Third," &c. &c. Had the word " believed" been a 
substitute for " listened," the expression would have 
been more correct. It was not strange that an am- 
bitious Bishop of Rome should have listened to any 
representation which justified an exercise of power, 
or encouraged the assertion of high prerogative. 
Indeed, the Bull of Adrian may be looked upon as 
the last act in a series of endeavours to bring the 
Church of Ireland into connection with, and under 
subjection to, the Roman See. The Epistle of Hil- 
debrand to the nobles and prelates of Ireland, was 
followed up by such measures as were calculated to 
induce a peaceful and willing recognition of his au- 
thority. It is easy to imagine the species of seduc- 
tion to which the Irish Ecclesiastics were exposed. 
War and adversity had reduced their £ower and 
deteriorated their character. They were no longer 
the wise and learned body which the first invasion 
of the northern spoiler had found them; they no 



* Lanigan'd Ecc. Hie. Vol. IV. p. 159. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



261 



longer experienced the same consideration in a coun- 
try where order had been very grievously shaken. 
They could easily be taught to understand how very 
greatly it might advance their interests to become 
united with a Church whose power was now acknow- 
ledged in all other parts of Europe, and by whose 
interference that respect and just dealing could be 
compelled from their semi-barbarous and demoralised 
chieftains, which, relying on their own merits and 
exertions, they were hopeless of obtaining. Yet, 
notwithstanding the favorable circumstances of a 
conjuncture, when Rome was most powerful, subtle, 
and rapacious, and the Irish ecclesiastical polity, if 
not in actual debasement, in the sorest distress ; it 
was to the sword recourse was had, for the purpose 
of obtaining authority over an island which eighty 
years of disaster and intrigue had not been able to 
reduce within " the borders of the Church." 

My limits are too circumscribed to admit of an 
ample consideration of the means adopted to intro- 
duce into this country the practices of the Roman 
Church. The labors of Gillebert bishop of Limerick, 
and of Malachy bishop of Down, the gradual intro- 
duction of the Roman discipline, the circumstances 
under which the pall was solicited and obtained for 
the bishopric of Armagh, for the first time, in the 
twelfth century, the answer returned to an application 
on behalf of the Church of Cashel, in which the 
pope showed his desire to obtain a formal recognition 
of his power from the Irish bishops,* and finally the 

* « St. Malachi then applied for the confirmation of the new 



262 



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Canon of the Synod of Cashel, a. d. 1 172, that " all 
divine matters be henceforth conducted agreeably to 
the practices of the holy Church according as ob- 
served by the Anglican Church/' are pregnant with 
assurance of the ancient independence of the national 
Church in Ireland, and of the contrivances by which 
its freedom was annihilated. 

I shall conclude my notice of evidence on this sub- 
ject, by reminding the reader of the unmeasured and 
indecent abuse with which Cambrensis reviled the Irish 
Church and people for their disobedience to the Papal 
See, " because they did not pay Peters pence," &c, 
and of the decisive fact that, when in the reign of 
Richard I. a legate was appointed for Ireland, his 
jurisdiction was limited to that part of the country 

Metropolitan See (Cashel) which was immediately granted; 
but on his applying also for the Pallium, the Pope replied : 
This is a matter which must be transacted with greater solemnity. 
Do you, summoning the bishops and clergy and the chiefs of 
your country, celebrate a general council, and after ye shall 
have all agreed on this point, apply for the Pallium, by means 
of respectable persons, and it shall be given you." — Lanigan 
Ecc. His. Vol. IV. 27. The hesitation of the pope has been 
ascribed to a dread, that there was not in Ireland a disposition 
to receive his gift of the Pallium with suitable respect His 
ready condescension to the request of Malachi on behalf of 
Armagh, and his unwillingness to yield a similar indulgence in 
favor of Cashel until he were better assured of the disposition 
to receive his favors than he could be by the northern bishop, 
may favor the supposition. It is however equally probable, 
that he was desirous to obtain a public and general acknowledg- 
ment of his supremacy. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 263 

over which the sway of England had been ex- 
tended.* 

It would not, however, be just to omit all notice 
of an objection which has sometimes been urged 
against the affirmation that the Irish Church was 
independent. An old Canon has been cited to prove 
that it acknowledged the Supremacy of the Roman 
See, and, although considerable doubt has been en- 
tertained and expressed respecting the genuineness 
of many of these ancient regulations, it may not be 
without its use to show the species of evidence by 
which the advocates of the Papal power would con- 
firm their assertions. The Canon is attributed to 
a Synod of Auxilius, Patricius, Secundinus, and Be- 
nignus, and is to the following effect : " Should any 
very difficult cause arise, upon which the Scottish 
people cannot decide (atque ignota cunctis Scoto- 
rum gentium judiciis) it is to be duly referred to the 
See of the Archbishop of the Hibernians, that is, of 
St. Patrick, and the examination of the prelate or 
priest, (hujus antistitis examinationem.) But if, in 
that See with its wise men (Sed in ilia cum suis sa- 
pientibus) such cause of the aforesaid business can- 
not easily be adjusted, we desire that it is to be sent 
to the Apostolic See, that is, to the chair of Peter 
having the authority of the City of Rome." Hence 
Doctor Lanigan infers not only the Primacy of 
Armagh, but also, " that the Irish Church did from 
the beginning acknowledge the supremacy of the 
See of Rome. Otherwise," he asks, " would it have 



* Columb. Hist. Add, 



264 



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referred its difficult questions to a See so distant 
from Ireland, while at that period there were several 
eminent Churches much nearer to us, such as those 
of Tours, Toledo, &c. unless a peculiar prerogative 
were believed to belong to the chair of St. Peter?"* 
I shall wave all consideration of the doubts which 
the historian throws on the date of the Canon, and 
regarding it as authentic and genuine, endeavour to 
answer his question. 

There are questions to a which question not only 
supplies, but is, the most appropriate reply ; perhaps 
this is one of them. A Roman Catholic, in the creed 
of Pius the Fourth, promises and swears true obedi- 
ence to the pope. Could such an obligation have 
been known, when the Bishop of Rome was ap- 
pointed to be the arbitrator in cases upon which the 
Irish Churches could not agree, and when the ap- 
pointment was made to rest on the authority of four 
individuals? Does not the document ascribed to 
these divines bear all the characters of indepen- 
dence ? Does it not imply that of their own free 
will they selected an arbitrator, that, by their au- 
thority alone, and not by any previous rule to whose 
constraint they submitted, not by any religious prin- 
ciple which all were bound to recognise, it was 
thenceforth determined, that whenever the Churches 
in Ireland conceived a cause too difficult for their 
adjudication, and were in need of foreign council, 
they should seek it at the See which was second in 



* Lanigan Ecc. Hist. Vol. 2. p. 391. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 265 

dignity to no other, and was acknowledged to be 
highest in rank of all the Western Churches ? 

Surely, the dignity of the Roman Church fur- 
nishes an abundant reply to Dr. Lanigan's question. 
Neither Tours nor Toledo were of equal eminence 
with Rome, nor could the greater convenience of 
consulting with any of the Continental Churches be 
a sufficient reason for debarring Ireland from availing 
herself of assistance from the See which had prece- 
dence before them all. It is indeed probable, that 
convenience was but little consulted in framing the 
canon ; that it was accounted desirable, rather, to 
discourage applications out of which foreign influ- 
ence might grow, and to deny facilities by which 
the indolent and unlearned could escape from the 
labor of thought and study. It is not by any means 
unreasonable to suppose that the very remoteness 
of Rome recommended its arbitration. The influ- 
ence of a distant see was less to be apprehended, 
and the practice of appealing attended by much 
labor and expense was less likely to become invete- 
rate. If the framers of the canon were influenced by 
considerations of this character, their providence has 
been vindicated in the result, the argument from 
appeals to the Church of Rome being, to the advo- 
cates of papal power, of a very unsatisfactory nature, 
and the authority of the Roman Bishop being in the 
end, forced upon an unwilling people, by that civil 
sword which, it is strongly insisted by those who 
swear to pay him true obedience, the pope ought 
not to employ. 

History does not furnish a more striking example 



266 



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of retributive justice than it displays in its records 
of Ireland. When a British Monarch, as the vassal 
and minister of an imperious prelate, conducted his 
armies into this land, he found a people whose espe- 
cial honor it was, that they alone, of all the nations 
of Europe had a national Church. Against the ex- 
istence of this independent ministration, artifice 
and force were exerted ; calumny seems as if it had 
been encouraged to defame " the ancient national 
faith,'' and the valor and the violence of a haughty 
and exasperated soldiery were not slack to execute 
vengeance. For a time, where England was, there 
was Popery ; where, amid distresses and disunion, 
the cause of Ireland was maintained, there, still, a 
national Church subsisted. A change took place, 
and the Bishop of Rome, whose power, in better 
times, had been resisted, or whose authority had been 
denied, viewed in a new relation, as an enemy of the 
conqueror, came to be regarded as an ally and a 
protector. Finally, when England was instructed in 
a purer faith, and had shaken off the yoke which 
she had been the instrument to place upon the 
reluctant Churches of Ireland, her own works rose 
in the judgment against her, and, at this day, she has 
the mortification to see, that the influence of Popery 
is mightier and its principles more intolerant, in the 
country upon which the force of her arms inflicted 
it, than in any other portion of the civilized world. 

But, perhaps, one of the most remarkable charac- 
teristics of the debasement into which Ireland has 
been degraded is, that extreme of servility " the 
forgetfulness of her free day," to which crime and 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 267 

adversity have reduced her. When the degenerate 
Grecian kindles at the thought of Lacedsemon or 
Athens, nay, when the slave under the lash of a 
cruel taskmaster bethinks him of the barbarism in 
which he was free, there is a principle of elevation 
in his remembrances which protects him from abase- 
ment, but when an Irishman, in his religious and his 
national feelings, is inflamed with ardent zeal in 
ministering to the grandeur of that power which 
smote the independence and eclipsed the glory of his 
Church and nation, his prejudices are baser than 
any ignobility of condition. What language can 
adequately describe the boldness of one, who, profess- 
ing to defend the ancient faith of Ireland, beguiles 
his unsuspecting readers into a daring and elaborate 
argument in defence of that Church by which her 
ancient faith was extinguished; what can account 
for his temerity, if it be not the character of a peo- 
ple who will accept and eulogize this foul scorn to 
the monuments wherein the history of their country 
is venerable. 

I once fondly cherished the hope that I should see 
a real defence of my country's ancient faith — a de- 
fence in which the renown of the mighty men who 
had rendered their nation illustrious, would have 
been called forth from obscurity, and their reputa- 
tion vindicated against scepticism and fable — but he 
is gone whose thoughts dwelt amidst national remem- 
brances, to whom the stories and the sentiments of 
those who enlightened our early day, were dear and fa- 
miliar, and the defence of the ancient national faith of 
Ireland is confided to an adventurous and misguided 



268 



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youth, to whom it does not appear that even the 
names of the saintly train, whose light was glorious 
in the days of old, have ever been made known. 

But, that I may conclude this painful subject, I 
would entreat the reader who may have perused the 
two volumes of the " defence," to pause and reflect 
whether, in any single passage the ancient faith of 
Ireland has been honored with even the most unce- 
remonious notice. Will it be said that the faith of 
this country was the same with that of Rome, and 
that the interests of both are cared for in the advo- 
cacy of either ? It was not becoming to discard all 
Irish testimony in a professed defence of the Irish 
faith, and it was imprudent to assume, as a matter 
which admitted of no dispute, that the Church 
which history represents as independent, while the 
rest of Europe was enslaved, was the only ecclesias- 
tical system of whose ancient subserviency to the 
Papal power, proof was unnecessary. What can be 
the meaning which the Irish Gentleman ascribes to 
" ancient ?" Is his antiquity no older than the days 
of Adrian ? Or what has Rome done — what bene- 
fits" has she conferred, that the promised defence of 
our ancient national faith should have been thus 
postponed for her, that among the testimonies borne 
by various tongues and nations, the sages and saints 
of Ireland shall have been commanded to keep si- 
lence ? What has Rome conferred upon our ancient 
Church ? Do we see reason to be thankful for her 
instructions or her protection? Are we indebted 
to her for the wise men who rendered " the national 
faith" an object of veneration in foreign lands, or for 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 269 

the no less illustrious sages to whose wisdom the 
learned of distant regions resorted ? No ; the period 
of glory was also the period of independence, and 
the Irishman who can make or adopt such a de- 
fence as that of the juvenile apologist, must have 
quaffed oblivion to the ancient faith of his country, 
and. forgetting the honours of eight hundred splen- 
did years, must commence his aera of national pride 
with the alliance between Adrian and Henry the 
Second, and the undertaking of the British monarch 
to " enlarge the borders of the Church," and impart 
an approved M ancient national faith" to Ireland, on 
the lances of his Norman adventurers.* 

There was once, as the story books say, but, as I 
believe in this particular instance, truth affirms, in 
Dublin, a man who professed himself a convert from 
the Church of Rome, and who, for many years, led 
a life by which he became conspicuous as an example 
of piety, and acquired considerable influence over 
the minds of Protestants, who believed his zeal to be 
pure and holy. He was of humble rank, and of 
education lowly as his estate ; but a seemingly stead- 

* I have thought it advisable to confine my proofs, that Ire- 
land was not governed in spirituals by the Church of Rome, to 
the assertion of the independence of her Church. The exami- 
nation of doctrines would be equally available to establish the 
purity of our national faith, but it should be more extensive 
than my limits would permit. It is much to be desired, that in 
the publication of Archbishop Usher's works, the University will 
print, in such a form as may render it accessible to all students, 
his dissertation on the ancient religion of Great Britain and 
Ireland. 



270 



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fast faith, and a most exemplary demeanour, recom- 
mended him to the notice and esteem of the wise 
and noble, and won reverence for him from numbers 
who were of his own condition. While he lived in 
this odour of sanctity, as, on a day of public fast or 
thanksgiving, he walked down the crowded aisle of 
Christ Church, where multitudes, before departing, 
waited to gaze on the holy convert, as he passed 
with slow step, and eyes which noticed nothing 
earthly, those who were nearest beheld him suddenly 
start and turn his agitated looks upwards, and then, 
to the consternation of the crowded assembly, fall to 
the ground as if a thunderbolt had crushed him. 
All was alarm and confusion. At length the holy 
man recovered life and his faculties, and explained 
to a wondering audience the cause of his affliction. 
He had been a hypocrite for nine years, professing 
attachment to the Church of England, while at heart 
convinced that, in denying the religion he had 
abjured, he was guilty of the sin against hope. The 
blessed Virgin had compassion on him, even in his 
blasphemy, and had, by revealing herself to his sinful 
eyes, awakened within him a better spirit, and deli- 
vered him from the demon which had driven him 
out into Protestantism. She had done more, — she 
had bestowed upon him, while he lay entranced, the 
gift of tongues, that he might convince the world of 
his miraculous recal to the truth, and win converts 
to the Church, as, on the day of Pentecost, the 
Apostles had attracted them. He was now in his 
right mind — he was determined to relinquish all the 
ill got gains of his apostacy, and he was prepared to 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



271 



submit to the examination of any learned persons 
who were desirous to test a miracle. 

This memorable event befel in the days of Usher, 
to whom the office of examination was of course 
confided. He entered upon his task with all the 
advantages which his extensive knowledge could 
bestow, and with an interest proportioned to the 
great importance of the occasion. It was matter of 
amazement to all who witnessed this singular trial 
of power, wherein genius and erudition contended 
against (what but a day before had been accounted) 
the simplicity of ignorance without guile, to observe 
the composure with which the relapsed convert met 
and solved the difficulties proposed to him. Books 
in various languages and characters, of ancient and 
modern times, were read with a facility which amazed 
the multitude, and interpreted with an accuracy 
which set the acumen of the examiner at defiance. 
The wonder grew — the audience felt a sense of awe 
stealing upon them— the gifted object of the Virgin's 
interposition became more and more confident — the 
Archbishop waxed pale. Usher, in his difficulties, 
always had immediate recourse to prayer. He with- 
drew for a few moments to implore assistance, the 
audience with intense anxiety, the pretender to a new 
apostleship, with untroubled countenance, awaiting 
his return. But the confident countenance became 
changed, when it looked upon the pages next spread 
before it. In the miraculous gift of tongues, the 
Welsh language had been forgotten. The excite- 
ment which followed the impostor's detection need 
not be described ; it is necessary only to say, that 



272 



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he made his confession, to the effect that he had, 
from early life, been devoted to the service of the 
Church of Rome — that he had been highly instruc- 
ted, even in his younger days, but that from the 
time when he in outward seeming joined the Church 
of England, his secret hours, under careful and learn- 
ed preceptors, were devoted to studies by which he 
had almost succeeded in his bold and criminal under- 
taking. 

So far as the imposture and hypocrisy are con- 
cerned, this story is not applicable to the case of the 
Irish Gentleman, whose hypocrisy was altogether of 
a contrary nature ; but it may serve the purpose 
of a good example, (the detected contriver of the 
pious fraud having become a convert to the truth,) 
or, to those who think that the ancient Irish faith is 
defended by advocating Popery, and who travel East 
and West for foreign testimonies in its favor, it 
may serve as a warning that there is a domestic diffi- 
culty for which they must first provide a solution ; 
namely, that the ancient Church of Ireland, before 
Adrian's Bull and Henry's invasion, could boast of 
innumerable wise and holy men, had fame abroad 
and pure religion at home, and had not a single 
Bishop, in whose appointment or approval, or mis- 
sion, as it is called, the Pope of Rome was con- 
cerned. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



273 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Council of Trent bears testimony to the corruption of Romish 
doctrine, and does not reform it — Index Expurgatorius — 
Catechism — Missal. 

It is an expedient to which Roman Catholic advo- 
cates have recourse, and from which the Irish Gen- 
tleman has not refrained, to quote, from the Homilies 
of the Church of England, testimony against the 
worship of idols. The argument which they profess 
to have gathered from (every reader of the Homilies 
will say) a very superficial consideration of the fa- 
vorite passage, is, that if idolatry were general and of 
long continuance, Satan prevailed against the Church. 
I sincerely hope, that references to the Homilies may 
encourage some enquiring spirits to read them; in 
which case they will need no defence, nor will such 
defences as are usually offered of the Roman Church 
satisfy those who shall have seen, in the discourses 
to which they have been guided by an unaccountable 
temerity of quotation, its idolatrous worship faith- 
fully exhibited. The Homilies are not documents to 
every sentence or paragraph of which ministers or 
members of the Church of England are required to 



274 



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yield assent. We profess to believe that they " con- 
tain godly and wholesome doctrine," but not, that 
every expression and precept found in them is neces- 
sarily holy and true. The Roman Catholic who, in 
obedience to the suggestions of those who misrepre- 
sent them by inadequate quotations, shall study care- 
fully, and with a remembrance of the place assigned 
to them in the Church of England, these excellent 
discourses, will not have misspent his time, and, if 
he love truth better than opinion, will be amply re- 
compensed for the mental disquietude he may at first 
experience. 

But, the Homilies can take care of themselves. My 
business is with a very different species of composition, 
namely, the decrees, of what has been styled the sacred 
and oecumenical Council of Trent. My purpose is to 
show, that by the declarations of that Council, the 
Church of Rome has been accused of error, and that, 
from the manner in which the Council terminated its 
sittings, the accusation of error hangs round it still. 

In the eighteenth session of the Council of Trent, 
a decree was passed, declaratory of corruption in 
the doctrine of the Church of Rome, and appointing 
a mode and instrument of reformation. After the 
usual exordium, the decree proceeds thus. The 
council " especially meditates, how it may, at lengthy 
restore to its proper purity and splendour the doc- 
trine of the Catholic faith, which, in consequence of 
discordant opinions (multorum inter se dissidentium 
opinionibus) has been, in many particulars, corrupted 
and obscured (pluribus locis inquinatam et obscura- 
tam.)" " Since then, in the first place it has ob- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



275 



servfedj that the number of suspected and pernicious 
books in which impure doctrine is contained, and is 
far and widely dispersed, has very much enereased, 
which has called forth many censures in various 
provinces, and especially in the blessed city of Rome, 
while yet no salutary correction has been applied to 
this so great and pestilent disease, the council has 
decided, that Fathers chosen for such an inquisition 
shall diligently consider, and in a convenient session 
report to the council, in order that with the greater 
facility it may be enabled to separate the divers 
and strange doctrines as tares from the wheat of 
Christian truth, and more conveniently deliberate 
and determine on those things w r hich shall seem op- 
portune to remove scruples from many minds, and 
to take away the causes of many complaints." 
Thus fully and plainly was it pronounced by an 
" infallible tribunal" that the doctrine of the Church 
of Rome was 4i corrupt and obscure" and this, not in 
matters of minor importance, but in what it stiled 
the " Catholic Faith." 

It was not to be expected, that the unsoundness of 
the Roman Church should be authoritatively ex- 
posed, and all further care of its interests aban- 
doned. Accordingly, a method of restoration was 
provided. Chosen individuals were appointed to 
institute an inquiry into the character of the books 
in which sound doctrine was opposed, as well as 
into works in which the faith was mingled with 
error. When a large number of such publications 
had undergone the censure of pious and learned 
men, it was decreed that the Council, sitting in its 



276 



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infallibility, should fully examine the labors of their 
delegates, and pronounce a final judgment on all 
that concerned doctrine and the mode of its enun- 
ciation. The benefits likely to result from such a 
proceeding were obvious. While the labors of the 
Council were lightened, and their deliberations left 
vacant for matters of more pressing importance, the 
select committee could give up all its care to the 
examination and censure of books ; and on the report 
of those " chosen Fathers," infallibility could assert 
its prerogative, and set a stamp of authority on the 
decisions to which the inquisition of books had 
afforded grounds and facilities. 

In the twenty-fifth Session, the list of books 
examined and censured was submitted for the deci- 
sion of the Council. The select committee had 
examined the writings of heretics, of the faithful, 
and of anonymous authors. It had censured books 
in which uncompensated evil was taught, as well as 
those in which pure doctrine was mixed with error ; 
and when the assembled Fathers proceeded to inves- 
tigate the issue of labors undertaken at their com- 
mand, so many particulars were to be examined, and 
matters of so much delicacy were to be decided, that 
the Council confessed its inability or indisposition to 
revise them, transferring to the Pope the office of 
determining a matter on which, especially, an infal- 
lible authority should have pronounced. The de- 
cree was to the following purport. Reciting, first, 
the Act by which the committee of inquiry was 
instituted, it proceeds. " Hearing now that the last 
hand has been set to the work, and yet that, on 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



277 



account of the variety and multitude of books, the 
matter cannot be distinctly and conveniently adjusted 
by the holy Synod, it commands that whatever the 
Committee has done shall be referred to the Roman 
Pontiff, that, by his judgment and authority, it may 
be determined and promulgated." The case of the 
Church of Rome, therefore, is thus fairly represented. 
An infallible Council declared that its doctrine of 
faith was corrupted and obscure ; and, in order to 
provide a remedy, appointed select divines to discri- 
minate between truth and error in published works, 
to whose influence Roman Catholics were likely to 
be exposed. When the discrimination had been 
made, the Council would not decide upon it, and 
thus declared, that only private authority should 
supply a remedy to the evil which infallible autho- 
rity had discovered and declared. 

There are some, who, if they are unacquainted with 
the disclosures of late years, may take upon them to 
affirm, that affairs remitted to the Pope by the 
decree of a Council, may be regarded as having 
been, by his decision, finally, and with infallible 
authority, adjusted. If this be so, it is the doctrine 
of the Church of Rome, that no man shall presume 
to read God's holy Scripture, unless he have permis- 
sion in writing from his parish priest, or the bishop 
of his diocese, and that even the bookseller who 
should supply a Bible to one not favored with such 
formal certificate of permission to read, shall suffer 
punishment. Such are the provisions contained in 
the 4th Rule of the Index Expurgatorius. Who- 
soever, therefore, regards the proceedings of "the 



278 



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Congregation of the Index" as definitively settled, 
must consider that, if he have not a written permis- 
sion to read the Scriptures, he should give up any 
copy of the Bible, in the vulgar tongue, which 
may be in his possession, or else consent to believe 
that he cannot, on confession of his sins, obtain 
absolution.* 

But, in Ireland; even under this disadvantage, 
the Index Expurgatorius cannot be received. It has, 
according to the testimony of Roman Catholic pre- 
lates, in this country " no authority whatever." It 
had not the approval of an infallible tribunal, and, 
in consequence, neither is the Church of Rome to 
be accused of its prohibition of Scripture, nor can 
Roman Catholics avail themselves of its provisions 
as if they secured an uniform recognition of sound 
doctrine and an universal rejection of heresy. There 
is something of inconvenience, certainly, in being 
constrained to acknowledge a principle from which 
it follows, that a writer may be reputed orthodox 
and holy in the Church of Rome in Ireland, who 
has been accounted guilty of heresy by the pope ; 
yet such is the force of the acknowledgement which 
was made, and which was perhaps esteemed less 
objectionable than a confession that Irish Roman 
Catholics assented to the propriety of regulations 
whereby the Bible was prohibited. 

The disadvantage of not having an authorised 
recognition and censure of books, will be obvious to 
any Roman Catholic in this country who enquires 



* Congr. Ind. Reg. 4. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



279 



into the foundation of his belief. He knows that 
the Council of Trent declared the doctrine of faith 
to be " corrupted and obscure," that uncertainty 
was occasioned by the diffusion of pernicious books, 
that, in order to correct the evil, a committee was 
appointed to collect information for the Synod, that 
the committee having examined the works of ortho- 
dox Catholics, the works of heretics, and of indivi- 
duals whose names and forms of religious belief 
were unknown, submitted a report of their labors, 
containing an account of books and errors so 
manifold, that the Council could not pronounce 
upon their character, and transferred to one whose 
judgment was not decisive, an office which, it 
may be said, belonged especially to an infallible 
tribunal. In consequence, an Irish Roman Catho- 
lic to whom the Roman censure of books has no 
authority, knows that the doctrine of faith has been 
perniciously misrepresented, can only conjecture 
where it is faithfully delivered. He has an infallible 
testimony to its corruption. He has no more than 
private judgment to guide him to the truth. 

In the twenty-fourth session, the Council of Trent 
directed that the people should be instructed in a 
Catechism to be prescribed " by the Holy Synod." 
In the following session the Catechism as well as 
the list and censures of prohibited books was referred 
for the judgment of the pope.* 

* Cone. Trid. Sess. 25 — « The Catechism of Trent." The 
Fathers in Council were not all insensible to the importance of 



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In the twenty-second session it was declared that 
" although the mass contained much for the erudition 
of a faithful people, yet it was not thought fit that 
it should every where be celebrated in the vulgar 

having the decision of a Council pronounced upon a Catechism, 
so that it should not only be published pursuant to their decree, 
but correct and acknowledged from their revision and approval. 
" The Legates, perceiving that it would take years to adjust all 
differences, (respecting the Index, Ritual, Cathechism, &c.) 
proposed to refer the matter to the Pope. To this some of the 
Prelates did not consent, and the Bishop of Lerida made a 
long discourse, to show that, if any work was peculiarly worthy 
of a Council, it was to compose a Catechism, which, after the 
Creed," (the Creed at this time being, it should be remembered, 
the Nicene,) "should hold the first place, and the Ritual, which 
should hold the second. To reform the Ritual required a cor- 
rect acquaintance with antiquity, and the customs of every 
country ; a branch of knowledge not to be found at the Court 
of Rome, where, however numerous were the men of talent and 
erudition, there were few who had applied to this department of 
literature, which is necessary for preparing a work worthy of 
transmission to posterity, and which could be better expected 
from a Council. The anxiety of the Fathers to terminate the 
Council and leave Trent, scarcely allowed him a hearing."— 
Comp. Hist of the Counc. of Trent, by the Rev. B. W. Ma- 
thias, — a work by which the proceedings of the Council of 
Trent are made known to the general reader, with a fidelity and 
conciseness which create an anxious desire for the appearance 
of the promised sequel. When the entire work has been com- 
pleted, it will conduce, perhaps, not less to the furtherance of 
truth, than the splendid labors of its venerable author in another 
department of the Christian ministration. 

The reader has not failed to observe, that the decision of the 
Council of Trent leaves the Roman Catholic people without a 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



281 



tongue ; wherefore pastors are directed frequently to 
explain some mystery of the sacrifice," Sec* It was 
also declared, that the ceremonies of the mass needed 
much correction. Yet even the Missal, which should 
be the text-book for such expositions, was not thought 
worthy of Synodal recognition. It was, together with 
the Breviary, the Catechism, and the list of prohi- 
bited books, referredto a decision which could not 
stamp it with authority.-)- 

" To look for Protestantism," observes the Irish 
Gentleman, " whose corner stone is the right of pri- 
vate judgment, in a Church whose system it has 
been from the first to acknowledge no such right 
was, I now perceived, a gross mistake.";): What is 
a member of the Church of Rome to do — what is 
he to believe ? If he deny that there is error in the 
" doctrine of faith" in his Church, error which it is 
damnable to hold, he forfeits eternal salvation be- 
cause he has rejected the decree of a general Coun- 
cil — if in his blindness he fall into error against 
which he has no warning, or if the warning which 
has influenced him, (and which being that of one or 
more individuals not infallible may lead astray,) has 
misdirected him, he is damned for heresy, — and if, 
deserted by the Council which has proclaimed his 

Catechism which is certified to • contain pure doctrine, or a 
Missal in which the rites and ceremonies of their Church Ser- 
vice can be learned or practised, as from a duly accredited 
source of intelligence. 

* Sess. 22. c. 8. See Appendix No. 3. f Sess. 25. 
\ Travels, Vol. I. p. 213. 



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danger, distracted by the uncertainty or precarious- 
ness of a pilotage not accredited, he trusts to God and 
his reason to guard him from destruction, he is 
wrecked for the crime of using his private judgment. 
Do the wildest fictions descriptive of the arts with 
which the fiend, when he has purchased a victim, so 
frames his bond as to provide for all contingencies, 
and shut out every avenue of escape, present a picture 
more revolting than that of Rome, proclaiming, to her 
astounded votaries, that there is peril around them by 
which they may be utterly destroyed, but yet that 
they must stand still, not to " see the salvation of the 
Lord," but because, if they seek that salvation, they 
shall suffer loss and ruin ; for the Church which will 
not offer guidance or council, is ever ready to perse- 
cute with rash and unsparing maledictions? What 
tyranny so merciless as this, and whereunto shall we 
liken the generation to which an undisguised advo- 
cacy of such soul-killing despotism, of such tame 
and beastly slavery, can be recommended, as a de- 
fence of the ancient national faith in which Ireland 
once proclaimed the glorious freedom of the Gospel. 



IRISH GEXTLEMAX. 



•283 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Termination of Trent Council — Confession of Incompetency— 
Reformers — Luther — Calumnies against him — Cranmer — 
Hildebrand Canonized. 

It may be a question whether, since the confusion 
of tongues at Babel, any dispersion of men assembled 
for an important object has taken place under cir- 
cumstances so surprising and yet so characteristic 
as those in which the Council of Trent discontinued 
its sittings. It had called for a report of the various 
objectionable doctrines, taught in books whose en- 
crease private authority had not been found able to 
discountenance. It assigned even the inadequacy 
of private exertion, of i; censures in the provinces 
and even in the benign city of Rome" to counteract 
the evil, as among the reasons, why it required the 
inquisition to be made and the report presented. It 
described this inquisition and report as no more than 
requisite preliminaries to the considerations it pro- 
posed to hold upon them, and the judgment it should 
pronounce. In due time the report was made. Its 
recitals were neither brief nor unimportant ; its list 
included many and various books tainted by different 
shades and degrees of heretical opinion ; and, just 



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then, when the Council found its worst apprehen- 
sions more than realised, when there was laid be- 
fore it, in alarming prospect, the confusion and 
corruption of doctrine which prevailed as well 
within, as without, the pale of the visible Church, 
the infallible council dissolved, announcing as the 
reason why it undertook not to remedy evil, the 
very magnitude of the difficulties, that very discre- 
pancy of opinion and confusion of tongues, which, 
especially, demanded its intervention. It is impos- 
sible for one who believes that God ruleth in affairs 
of men, not to recognise in this singular confession 
of imbecility, a special, and almost miraculous judg- 
ment on those profane boasters of infallible power who 
would build a city and a tower whose top should 
reach the heavens, and who, at the dispersion of 
Trent, beheld the tower unfinished and "left off to 
build the city." 

Surely it is not reasonable to impute blame to the 
reformers, that they did not submit to a tribunal, 
which would not listen to the prelate who gave 
warning against the proclamation of its own incom- 
petency. It would be, by far, a more compendious 
process to exercise infallibility according to the ex- 
ample of Constance, than to manifest its presence 
in sound and satisfactory judgment. But it would 
be idle to hope, that the council would listen to the 
oral expostulations of men, whose written works 
they declined examining. If the reformers re- 
fused to appear in person before the assembly, (for 
reasons of which it is unnecessary to remind the 
reader) they could be judged in their books; and yet 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 285 

even this judgment was delegated to the pope. How 
inconsistent is it, therefore, to tax as disobedience to 
the decisions of a solemn tribunal, disregard of an 
assembly which passed upon itself, in the very in- 
stance in which its judgment was most to be looked 
for, the sentence of incompetency and extinction. 

But, if the Church of Rome or its avenging spirits 
were denied the opportunity to convince the reform- 
ers of their errors, there has been no want of incli- 
nation to launch the anathema which should scatter 
their ashes or blast their memories. It is a favorite 
mode of argument with many an advocate of infalli- 
bility, who would hold himself disgraced by adducing 
so irrelevant a matter on any other occasion than 
one in which his Church is concerned, to gather all 
that slander has invented against those by whom the 
papal power was shaken, to collect also every mark 
of their weakness and indiscretion, and to ask are 
the vices or the frailties of such men arguments in 
favor of the Protestant religion. 

It would be well if they would propose the ques- 
tion in another form, are these vices favourable to the 
Church of Rome. Supposing it admitted that Lu- 
ther was stained with the sinful practices, and the 
superstitious opinions imputed to him, does his ini- 
quity in the slightest degree affect the question at 
issue between Protestants and the Church wherein 
he had been instructed ? Supposing that the 
Church of Rome, which had the care of Luther's 
childhood and of his youth, permitted him to grow 
up with dispositions to evil, which her infallibility 
had neither corrected nor discovered, does it consti- 



286 



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tute an argument for the purity of her faith, that she 
had not prevented him from becoming the guilty 
thing which her advocates industriously misrepre- 
sent him ? That the state of a spirit is debilitated 
and distempered, is no proof that it has been under 
the training of the physician of souls. Had Luther 
left the Church of Rome, because it could not cure 
him of his corruptions, the motive of his seperation 
would be just,* and it should be thought very inju- 
dicious, indeed, in her champions, to allege the vices 
which she could not correct, as proofs of her unerring 
power to eradicate all evil. 

But, are the charges so bitterly urged against the 
reformers founded in fact ? Was Luther the mon- 
ster the enemies of truth or the ready recipients of 
calumny are earnest to describe him ? I really feel 
shame as I admit the bare idea of consenting to 
give up to slander, one whose endowments were so 
noble and whose purposes were so pure as those of 
the great reformer. It must, hower, be confessed, 
that the frailties by which man is tempted were 
found in him, and often, because in his character 
every thing was great and bold ; more strongly 

* There was, I always thought, wisdom in the reply of one 
of the traduced Cavan converts, who stated, as his motive to 
leave the Church of Rome, that its ministration was useless to 
him. " I like what I hear in the Church," says he, " but at the 
Chapel, for once I was in under the roof, I was twice in the 
yard ; and when I was in, it done (did) me as little good as 
when I was out." Latin prayers are but solemn mockery to 
the anxious mind of an uninstructed peasant. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



287 



marked than in inferior natures. It should also be 
kept in mind, that the idea of excellence which his 
faith contemplated rendered him less lenient to the 
passions and weakness by which true religion was 
offended, and thus, where others would be but lightly 
moved, his spirit was roused from its depths, and his 
complaints were loud and vehement, as he confessed, 
in the sincerity of a penitence that shook his soul, 
the sinfulness of which he was conscious. Protest- 
ants who read the Bible remember the complaints of 
St. Paul ; if Roman Catholics read them they would 
be instructed that the best evidence of iniquity is 
not found in the sorrows by which the spirit groans 
under the burden of sin. Man is not reconciled to 
sin, so long as the thought of it afflicts him. If this 
had been remembered, the calumniators of Luther 
would discover in the strength of his expressions, 
rather the energy of his repentnce than the enormity 
of his guilt. 

Luther's offences however, do not need, it is said, 
his confession of them. He was superstitious ; he 
was false to his vows ; he was indulgent to the cri- 
minal weaknesses of others. We should alway re- 
member how much our estimate of moral good 
depends upon the character of our early associations. 
A gentleman, (the individual of an order which the 
institutions of chivalry have contributed to produce) 
regards a direct falsehood, or an act of cowardice, as 
a species of impossibility. Will any man say, that 
truth and courage, considered not as Christian 
graces, but as ornaments of human character, are to 
be found and expected equally in the inferior classes 



288 



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in society. What constitutes the difference, the 
moral difference? The difference of circumstances. 
The gentleman has been brought up in abhorrence 
of vices which are mean. Even where little pains 
are taken to communicate religious impressions, sen- 
timents of honor are instilled ; and thus the character 
of the high-born becomes insensibly moulded into 
something different from that of the humbler indi- 
vidual, around whose early days, no elevating as- 
sociations were collected. 

Let Luther's conduct have the palliation with 
which the circumstances of his early nurture should 
soften censure, and there will be found much to 
plead in his favor. He broke his vows of celibacy ; 
but the Church in which he had been instructed 
taught him to hold vows light.* He permitted a 

* The reader will probably remember the acknowledged prin- 
ciple of the Roman Catholic Church, that " oaths are not obli- 
gatory, they are perjuries rather, if detrimental to the Church," 
and if he look to the evidence taken before the Commissioners 
of Education in Ireland, he will find that the explanation 
offered of this characteristic principle, by the Rev. N. Slevin, is, 
that by detrimental to the Church is meant, detrimental to 
religion, and that the principle implies no more than " that 
unlawful oaths are not to be kept." — See Examination of the 
Maynooth Professors, He will find also matter of much inte- 
rest on the subject of oaths and vows and the dispensing power 
in the evidence of the Rev. F. Anglade, the Rev. Dr. M'Hale, 
and the Rev. W. Higgins, on the same occasion: The number- 
less cases in which Luther had seen dispensations extended to 
oaths and vows, may have induced in him less regard for 
an obligation which he conceived contrary to the divine law. 
It may freely be admitted that in his own instance a man should 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



289 



violation of the laws of marriage ; f but he belonged 
to a Church which interfered with matrimonial re- 
gulations — even arrogating to itself the power to 
remove impediments which Scripture had prescribed, 
and to create impediments where the Scriptures had 
left freedom. He was superstitious ; he believed 
that he had held conferences with the devil. i He 

distrust his judgment, and many may think, judging from their 
own feelings, that they would not disengage themselves from an 
obligation, simply because it was unadvisedly incurred. But 
it should be remembered that our notion of the solemnity of an 
oath or vow is not acquired amidst the thousand evasions and 
distinctions by which in the Church of Rome its force was neu- 
tralised, 

| Basnage candidly acknowledges that Luther was guilty of 
an offence in permitting the second marriage (if it could be 
called marriage) of the Landgrave of Hesse, while his former wife 
ras still alive. At the same time, he pleads in extenuation of his 
-ffence, and in crimination of the Church in which he had 
>een educated — that popes have permitted incest by published 
trails, and that the Council of Trent pronounced an anathema 
gainst any who should deny the power of the Church to 
ispense, in the degrees of affinity prohibited by Scripture ; 
.nd also, that it was decided by Gregory the Second, when 
onsulted as to the doctrine of his Church, that, where a wife 
as afflicted with a tedious illness, a second marriage might be 
Dntracted, provided the former wife were duly provided with 
le necessaries of life. Could the judgment of one brought 
p in so lax a Church be, (humanly speaking,) correct ? Should 
is lapses be so rigorously censured, as if he had been trained in 
purer system ? 

\ Basnage accuses Bossuet of having contrived the slanderous 
^n given since his time to the conference, imaginary or real, 

u 



290 



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must have been an infidel at heart, rejecting what 
his Church inculcated far more earnestly than the 

of Luther with the tempter. There has been much debate on 
the question whether it is intended, in the account given by the 
reformer, to represent a real occurrence or to detail the inci- 
dents of a visionary temptation and dialogue. For my part, I 
esteem it a matter of very little moment to decide in which 
point of view Luther considered it. If the reader is not ac- 
quainted with Coleridge's profound and simple explanation of 
the phenomenon, and his analysis of the reformer's character, 
he should not long defer the pleasure and profit he can derive 
from the study of a dissertation rarely excelled even by its gifted 
author. It will seem of little moment to one who has reflected, 
to defend Luther against the charge of believing that his inter- 
course with Satan, was a real occurrence, although it would 
seem, from certain expressions in his report of the dialogue on 
private thoughts, that he conceived his detail to be that of a 
vision. 

The only important matter to be noticed, is an insinuation 
that it was from his ghostly enemy he learned the impiety of 
the mass. This appears altogether, as Basnage recites the inci- 
dent, a gross and inexcusable misrepresentation. The tempter, 
as Luther described the danger, strove to goad him into despair 
by reminding him how often he had perpetrated the abom- 
ination of the mass, not by disclosing to him what he had 
long known, its idolatrous nature. a That which affrighted 
me, said Luther, was, that the evil one did not speak untruth 
when he represented the magnitude of my crime. He produ- 
ced against me two irreproachable witnesses, the law of God 
and my own conscience. I cannot deny that I have sinned, and 
that my sin is grievous. I have merited death ; but the enemy 
desired that, like Cain, I should despair of God's mercy. It is 
in this combat I have need of the assistance of the Holy Spirit. 
I was constrained to acknowledge before the evil one, that I had 
sinned, that I was condemned as Judas ; but I turned to Jesu- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



291 



truths of the Bible, if he doubted, not the possibility 
but the frequency of supernatural incidents, and of 
demoniac appearances and solicitations. 

The Irish Gentleman, not satisfied with repeating 
the accusations against Luther and his associates, 
does not shrink from the unworthy office of defaming 
a character which it is the interest of all who love 
their kind to protect from slander — a man whose 
course, save for the frailties that denote the evil 
effects of education, and the fallen estate of man, 
appears to have all lain in light from Heaven. It is 
not for me to attempt a vindication of Cranmer, but 
it is for me to rejoice, that, as yet, when men of 
education and genius assail such a reputation as his, 
they lay aside their station and their name, and 
appear only as anonymous contributors to a Review, 
or as Irish Gentlemen disguised and on their travels. 
When the accusers of a spirit like his who framed 
the Liturgy of the Church of England, thus hide 
their faces as they criminate, we may well permit all 
history, cotemporary and of succeeding ages, — but 
still more we may permit the Liturgy to speak for 
him who had so large a share in its compilation ; 
we may turn to that noble monument as the Roman 

Christ as St. Peter did. I embraced the merit of His death who 
delivered me from condemnation." Histoire de la religion, Sfc. 
Some short time since a little tract was printed in Dublin, con- 
taining a translation of the dialogue which has been so shame- 
lessly misrepresented among those who would argue against 
truth by calumniating her champions. It ought to be reprinted, 
and circulated so as to leave slander without excuse. 



292 



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looked to the Capitol, and feel assured that, if there 
be some who will remain where dark insinuations are 
whispered, all who love not merely the religion to 
which the martyr ministered, but the literature of 
England, will turn their backs upon the traducer, 
and pronounce the framer of the Liturgy acquitted. 
But a single word more. It is insinuated that Cran- 
mer assisted in actions for which he should be con- 
demned. The crime for which he suffered was 
heresy* — the character of the treason for which he 

* " As soon as Cranmer perceived what course events were 
likely to take after King Edward's death, he gave orders that all 
his debts should be paid, to the uttermost farthing, and cancelled 
the bills which were due to him from persons who were not in a 
condition to discharge them. This being done, he said he was now 
his own man, and with God's help able to answer all the world 
and all worldly adversities." Book of the Church After his 
condemnation for contumacy in not appearing at Rome while 
detained a close prisoner in England, " he was dealt with very 
differently from any of the former sufferers ; for he was removed 
to the house of the Dean of Christ Church, and treated there 
rather as a guest than a prisoner, with every possible indulgence, 
and with every mark of real or pretended regard, some, perhaps 
acting from sincere attachment to him, others in the hope of 
prevailing on a mind which was naturally timid. That they 
succeeded is certain, but it is doubtful to what extent. The 
probability is, that he signed an equivocal recantation, and that 
the other papers, five in number, wherein he was made to ac- 
knowledge, in the most explicit terms, the doctrines which he 
had repeatedly confuted, and to vilify himself as a mischief 
maker and blasphemer, were fabricated by Bonner's directions. 
The circumstances are altogether suspicious as well as perplexed, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



293 



was condemned could not satisfy his revilers. If a 
fouler charge could be advanced against him, we 
may be well assured that the Edinburgh Reviewer 
and the Irish Gentleman were not better disposed to 

and nothing appears certain, but that he submitted, under a 
promise that his life should be spared, and that he should pass 
it, if he did not wish for wealth or dignity, in a private station, 
and wherever he listed. Ibid. Vol. 2, />. 229. 

" Of all the martyrdoms, during this great persecution, this 
was, in all its circumstances, the most injurious to the Romish 
cause. It was a manifestation of inveterate and deadly malice 
toward one who had borne his elevation with almost unexampled 
meekness. It effectually disproved the argument, on which the 
Romanists rested, that the constancy of our martyrs proceeded 
not from confidence in their faith, and the strength which they 
derived therefrom, but from vain glory, the pride of consistency, 
and the shame of retracting what they had so long professed. 
Such deceitful reasoning could have no place here : Cranmer 
had retracted, and the sincerity of his contrition for that sin was 
too plain to be denied, too public to be concealed, too memo- 
rable ever to be forgotten. The agony of his repentance had 
been seen by thousands ; and tens of thousands had witnessed 
how, when that agony was passed, he stood calm and immova- 
ble amid the flames ; a patient and a willing holocaust, tri- 
umphant not over his persecutors alone, but over himself, over 
the mind as well as the body, over fear, and weakness, and 
death."— Ibid, Vol II. p. 232. 

With such a memorial of his life as the Liturgy of the 
Church of England, and with such a monument as has been 
erected for him in the story of his martyrdom, told in the Book 
of the Church, the reputation of Cranmer is free from peril ; 
neither the arrow that fleeth by day nor the pestilence that 
walketh by night can harm his name. 



294 



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bring to light his evil deeds and blacken his reputa- 
tion, than the persecutors who bestowed his crown of 
martyrdom. 

But it is said, all the Reformers were persecutors, 
Cranmer as well as the more intemperate. It is 
true, that even Cranmer's name is tarnished. His 
crime was not so heinous as that of the Church in 
which he had been educated. He condemned to 
death for what he accounted blasphemy against God, 
because a heresy against the Apostle's Creed — Rome 
slew her victims for denying to the Pope the honor 
exacted for him. There is a difference here ; but 
still we must regret that the Reformers did not more 
speedily and more clearly learn to understand the 
religion of the Lord Jesus. Let it not, however, be 
forgotten, that they were educated in a Church 
which reckoned Lateran and Constance among its 
dominions, which accounted perjuries lawful, and 
treachery of the basest character honorable, when 
employed to avenge the Church by the murder of 
an enemy. Let it be remembered, that the darkest 
and the most revolting pages of human history were 
presented to the youthful mind of each probationer 
for the office of the priesthood, and that he was 
taught to think of the foulest enormities that dis- 
graced his nature as transfigured when perpetrated 
in the service of the Church, and changed into what 
was laudable and fair. What was to be expected? 
Was it not, that coming out of intellectual darkness, 
objects should seem confused—men like trees walking? 
Was it not, that they who came forth from the tombs 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 295 

where humanity was putrifying, should have marks 
of defilement, should even have the grave clothes 
around them ? Oscitancy, unsteadiness, even moral 
offence we ought to have anticipated; and in the 
vices which dishonored some, and the errors which 
led many astray, we may read the character of the 
Church from which they had come forth ; while in 
their Apostolic preaching, their zeal, and their en- 
durance, we recognise the triumph of faith over the 
vices of a most debasing education. 

It seems singular, that the revilers of the Reformers 
and Martyrs of Protestant communions should have 
forgotten a remarkable distinction between the case 
of those whose instructors they calumniate, and cir- 
cumstances in which they themselves are placed, 
and which might well justify opprobrious imputa- 
tions. If the Reformers were even such as slander 
has described them, they might be serviceable in 
breaking down an evil system — while, if there was no 
recognition of their sanctity required, as of necessity , 
for admission into a better, the framers of a sounder 
discipline, or the setters forth of purer doctrine, are 
no wise inculpated in the guilt of those who had 
made the way plain before them. If, indeed, they 
ascribed to them an honor which was undeserved, 
and said, no man shall be admitted to Protestant 
communion who will not join in offering such an 
honor, there would be just ground to accuse them of 
abetting and encouraging the evil& of which their 
leader and head had been guilty. Has any such 
folly or crime been imputed to a Protestant 



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Church? Let it be proved, and let that Church 
have its candlestick removed. Has even the most 
honored in any Protestant assembly, been, by the 
act of men, elevated to Heaven, to intercede there 
for the people who make supplication to him? 
What is it to the cause of Protestantism, that its 
first teachers were not perfect ? They did not teach 
men to look unto them. They taught, that there was 
none good but one — that there is none other name 
given under Heaven whereby we may be saved, but 
only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and shall 
we be thankless for the revealing of this great truth 
from the sepulchre in which, unseen, it was burning, 
because they who brought it forth were not, in all 
particulars, what the mind most loves to contemplate ? 

But, to think that Rome shall advance against 
the Protestant Church, as an objection, that some of 
the Reformers were not without a blemish — Rome, 
which has intruded into the Courts of Heaven a 
motley tribe of Deities, such as never were be- 
fore imagined? Rome, which has intruded into 
heaven Gregory the Seventh ! Hildebrand f the 
man whose life of evil could only be explained by 
the supposition that he was made an instrument of 
the Devil !* Does Rome deny the purity of the Pro- 

* " With regard to Gregory the Seventh there is much more 
difficulty; he stretched the limits of ecclesiastical pretension 
much beyond what I would approve of. It is recorded by an 
ecclesiastical historian who lived shortly afterwards, that before 
his death he grieved very sincerely for the part he had acted, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



297 



testant faith, because the first Reformers retained 
frailties which proved them human ? 

and even acknowledged that the troubles he had excited in 
various countries had been occasioned through the temptations 
of the Devil — Most Rev, Dr. Murray, Com. Com. 1825. 

It is inexpressibly awful to think that millions of men suppli- 
cate the favor of one, who, they have reason to believe, was an 
instrument of evil during his life — and whose canonization may 
have rendered him still more serviceable to his unrighteous task 
master. 



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CHAPTER XVIII. 

Church of Ireland — Testimony to its doctrine contrasted with 
the testimonies afforded by the Church of Rome — Peculiar 
character of the Church of England. 

The Church of England has generally had the high 
honor paid to it by the adversaries of Protestantism, 
that they scarcely ever directly impugn it. They 
speak of the licentiousness of private judgment, and 
the consequences of leaving every headstrong indivi- 
dual without constraint or advice to pursue his incli- 
nations. They speak of the evils which have re- 
sulted from efforts to discover truth, when no respect 
was paid to the governance by which such efforts 
should be regulated. They do not speak of the 
admirable judgment with which the Church of Eng- 
land has been poised between despotism and license, 
exchanging infallibility for a reasonable authority, 
substituting for a servile reverence of the ancients, 
or a flippant rejection of them, a discreet and pious 
respect for what was taught in early times and in all 
countries ; a respect which recognises in Scripture 
alone, truth without any mixture of error, and thus 
corrects and modifies the estimation in which it 
holds the most honored human compositions. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 299 

Another honor is paid to the Church of England. 
She has a Liturgy ; Articles of Faith ; a Catechism. 
Against these her adversaries might consistently- 
direct their arguments, because in these the princi- 
ple of the Church is made known ; but it so happens 
that these are for the most part unnoticed in contro- 
versy, (we might say entirely omitted in the contro- 
versy of our Irish Gentleman,) and the testimony of 
individuals, some altogether unworthy of credit as 
witnesses, some whose evidence, by being mutilated, 
is mirepresented, is adduced, as if in them, and not 
from the authoritative declarations of the Church 
herself, her doctrines were to be learned. This is 
strange — it would seem as if the practice of invoking 
saints, so influenced the judgment of Roman Catholics, 
that even in their reasonings they will not presume 
to ascend higher than to a subordinate authority. 

There might be some propriety in endeavouring 
to ascertain the doctrine of the Church of Rome 
from individuals in her communion, because there is 
not in existence any work of authority from which 
her faith can be known. Her traditions are neces- 
sarily secret ; she has not approved any interpreta- 
tion of the Bible ; she has not declared the councils 
which should have authority ; she has not reported 
the proceedings of approved councils so as that their 
declarations can be read in an authentic form ; she 
has not distinguished what Canons are to be received ; 
what are to be rejected ; what partially rejected and 
partially retained ; she has not recorded the names 
of the Fathers to whom she consigns the office of 
interpreting Scripture ; she has not authorised a 



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Catechism for the instruction of her people, a pro- 
hibitory index of books in which, by exposing 
heresy, she would distinguish truth ; she has not 
authorized a Missal for the services of devotion 
and the solemn sacrifice ; she has not authorized a 
Breviary for the private edification of the priesthood. 
When we enquire, therefore, into the doctrines of 
the Church of Rome, we are, of necessity, con- 
strained to accept the guidance of secondary evi- 
dence, because none better can be procured. And 
yet, it is the cry of Roman Catholics that this evi- 
dence ought not to have been accepted. Our answer 
is, we have never resorted to it but of necessity. 
We affirm that there is no evidence of a primary 
character as to the doctrines of the Church of Rome ; 
her pretensions are of a nature to which exposure 
would be destruction; they are accordingly con- 
cealed in vagueness and mystery; her prophet of 
infallibility is veiled. 

A single consideration will be sufficient to point 
out the distinction between the testimonies by which 
the doctrines, respectively, of the Churches of Eng- 
land and of Rome, can be ascertained. A Roman Ca- 
tholic professes, (an ecclesiastic swears,) to receive, 
withont doubts all that was delivered, declared, and 
defined in the Sacred Canons and General Councils, 
and to condemn and anathematize all things contrary 
thereto. No infallible authority, indeed no authori- 
tative assembly, has decided what Councils or what 
Canons those are, which must be without any doubt 
received.* A minister in the Church of England 

* " When Roman Catholics are required to profess their 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



301 



solemnly subscribes his assent and consent to the 
" Book of Common Prayer," and promises canonical 
obedience to his diocesan. The canons of the Church 
of England are not numerous, and are accessible to 
all. They were not framed for times like the present, 
and therefore all are not practically in operation — 
but they are well known, and open to examination. 
The Articles of Religion are found in the Book of 
Common Prayer, and are, as the book in which they 
are contained, published by authority. They affirm 
the doctrine, that Holy Scripture contains all truth 
necessary for salvation ; and thus it is made evident, 
that the engagements of a minister of the Church of 
England, as to his belief, are, that he receives the 
Bible as the source of all necessary truth, and that 
he assents to the " Book of Common Prayer" as 
containing a sound exposition of faith, and an edify- 
ing formulary of devotion. While, then, the engage- 
ments taken to the Church of Rome exact an inquiry 
into the number of Councils, their proceedings, their 

assent to all things declared and defined in the canons of Coun- 
cils, what Councils are meant ?" " The canons universally re- 
ceived by the Church, or such parts of them as are received by 
the Church." 

"The whole of some and parts of others?" "Just so." — 
Lords' Com. 1825, Right Rev. J. Doyle, D. D. 

The promise to receive these canons was made subsequently 
to the sittings of the Council of Trent. What authentic body 
of canons was framed since then? None could have been 
authenticated—nor has there ever been framed a body of canons, 
or of doctrine in the Church of Rome, on which infallibility has 
set its seal. 



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canons, their anathemas, — an inquiry in which the 
infallible power has vouchsafed no assistance, and in 
which, consequently, secondary evidence must be 
received, — the engagements of a minister in the 
Church of England directly refer the inquirer to two 
books, one of which all Christians acknowledge to 
be true, and one which the Church of England 
openly professes as that by which the peculiar cha- 
racter of her ministration may be learned with au- 
thority. 

It is clear, therefore, that when Roman Catholics 
pretend to derive their knowledge of Protestant 
doctrine, (at least the doctrines of the Church of 
England,) from individual testimony, they have 
unnecessarily abstained from the more satisfactory 
evidence abundantly afforded to them; and that 
when they complain of the selections which have 
sometimes been made from the evidences of doctrine 
taught in their own Church, affirming that such evi- 
dence has no authority, their remonstrance is unjust, 
because they produce no evidence of unquestionable 
authority, by which their creed can be ascertained.* 

Far be it, however, from a member or minister of 
the Church of England to discountenance or dis- 
courage the habit of consulting those high authorities 

* The doubts and uncertainties respecting the decrees of 
Lateran and Constance, as expressed in the evidence of Roman 
Catholic Bishops and Priests before the Parliamentary Com- 
mittees and the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, in 
the year 1825, are sufficient to prove that the evidence as to 
Canons and Councils must be held conjectural. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



303 



which, although not to be regarded as oracles of 
truth, have conferred honor on their Church, and 
have been lights to lighten those who worshipped in 
other communions. We would say merely, let not 
the writers whom we do not respect be received as 
bearing testimony which the formularies of our wor- 
ship, and the articles of our faith, distinctly afford,— 
let not those whom we hold in honor, have their 
testimonies marred by inadequate citations, and we 
shall as little shrink from placing the issue of our 
cause on the excellence of our divines, as the mem- 
bers of any other Christian communion. Nay, we 
are ready to admit, that the comments of our chosen 
divines afford considerable if not essential assistance 
to one who desires to understand the precise cha- 
racter of our institutions. 

6 ' At the present day," observes Bishop Jebb, " it 
is by no means sufficiently considered, that the 
Church of England occupies a very peculiar station 
in the Christian world, constituting, as it were, a 
species in herself. 

" Her specific temperament, indeed, has, during 
the last century, been most inadequately recognised 
at home ; but it has not failed to attract the notice 
of foreign observers. The sagacious Mosheim, for 
example, and he is not singular in his statement, 
describes the English Church as that correction of 
the old religion which separates the Britons equally 
from the Roman Catholics, and from the other com- 
munities who have renounced the domination of the 
Pope. 

" We can feel no difficulty, either in adopting or 



304 



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in justifying this acute and compendious definition. 
The Church of Rome fetters the judgment by im- 
plicit submission to authority. Foreign branches of 
the Reformation give unbounded license to the fancy, 
by the unrestricted exercise of private interpretation. 
But our national Church inculcates a liberal, discri- 
minative, yet undeviating reverence for pious anti- 
quity; a reverence alike sanctioned by reason, in- 
spired by feeling, and recommended by authority. 
This principle is, in truth, our especial charac- 
teristic ; a principle which has ever enabled our 
Church to combine discursiveness with consistency, 
freedom of inquiry with orthodoxy of belief, and 
vigorous good sense with primitive and elevated 
piety. 

" This happy temperament is guarded by the most 
safe and sober limitations. The Church of England, 
in the first instance, and as her grand foundation, 
derives all obligatory matter of faith, — that is, to use 
her own expression, all that is to be believed for ne- 
cessity of salvation, from the Scriptures alone ; and 
herein she differs from the Church of Rome. But 
she systematically resorts to the concurrent sense of 
the Church Catholic, both for assistance in the in- 
terpretation of the sacred text, and for guidance in 
those matters of religion which the text has left at 
large ; and herein she differs from every other re- 
formed communion."* 

Had the Irish Gentleman perused the above ex- 
tract from one of the most eminent of modern divines, 

* Sermons by the Rev. John Jebb, A. M., Appendix. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



305 



he would have, perhaps, been spared his travel to 
the German oracles of reason, and his readers would 
have been spared the knowledge of all the im- 
piety with which the answer of the oracles has made 
them acquainted. Had the character of the Church 
of England been known, in which respect for anti- 
quity accompanies reverence for the Scripture, and 
in which private judgment is at once assisted and 
encouraged, the evils of extreme licentiousness, the 
disregard of all the knowledge of early times, and 
the abuses of that freedom which the Church of 
Rome denies and the Church of England inculcates, 
would not have been represented as inherent in, and 
essential to, Protestantism. While, therefore, the 
Irish Gentleman adduces, as testimonies to the cha- 
racter of our Church, German extravagance and 
English formalism,— while, by partial extracts from 
our valued expositors, he misrepresents their mean- 
ing, may I be permitted to propose one human tes- 
timony — that from which I have extracted the pre- 
ceding character of our Church, — a testimony which 
even the angriest adversary of Protestantism will 
admire, for the wisdom of its sentiments and the 
characteristic beauty of its expression. 

It is well worthy of remark, that the principle, by 
which the divines of the Church of England were 
governed in ecclesiastical arrangements, is almost 
identical with that which, nearly a thousand years 
preceding, Ireland had recognised in its separation 
from the Church of Rome ; " when commissioners, 
in their judgment of heresies, were enjoined to 
adhere, in the first place, to the authority of the 

x 



306 



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canonical scriptures ; secondly, to the decisions of the 
first four general councils; and thirdly, to the 
decision of any other general council founded on the 
express and plain words of holy scripture."* Here, 
it is clear, the Church of England manifests a 
peculiar respect for the first four councils, which the 
reader will remember, the Irish Church had received. 
He will remember also, the reason assigned by 
Baronius for what he was pleased to call our schism. 
The Roman Church had received the second synod 
of Constantinople, the same which she now reverences 
as the fifth among her general councils, and the 
Church of Ireland, not satisfied with a silent rejection 
of its proceedings, not contented to do as has, in 
later years, been done, with respect to the decrees of 
Trent, remonstrated with the Roman Church on the 
impropriety of assenting to its decisions ; and failing 
in the endeavour to persuade, adopted what the papal 
historian esteems the rash, and what all will regard 
as the extreme alternative of separation. It is a me- 
morable coincidence that when England, in the 
sixteenth century, proceeded to the reformation of 
her Church, without any reference whatever to the 
ecclesiastical history of Ireland, but guided by 
respect for antiquity and devotedness to truth, she 
adopted, we might say precisely the same prin- 
ciple, which, in the sixth age, had been declared 
and acted on in this once enlightened country. 

" Respect for primitive times was shown by the 
Church of England* not alone in her articles of faith 

* Bishop Jebb's Sermons, Appendix. — Burnet Hist of Ref. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



307 



but also in her formularies of devotion. She did 
not, indeed, gather up such spoils as that besotted 
Roman Emperor carried back from ocean as the 
appropriate tribute to his virtues; and parade the 
tingling of bells, and the sprinkling of water, and 
superfluous lights, and the inconvenience of unneces- 
sary censers, as the best legacies antiquity had 
bequeathed. The Church of England well may yield 
such honors to those who love to wear them. Let 
those who list, claim the exclusive glory of imi- 
tating ancient times, in particulars which ancient 
sages have not esteemed worthy of being noticed ; 
let them boast that their shrines have a more 
gorgeous embellishment, that their vestments are 
more curiously embroidered, and that their ceremo- 
nies are more cumbrous and more theatrical ; but, to 
collect from antiquity whatsoever can improve the 
heart and enlighten the understanding, to be in unison 
with the primitive Church in reverence for God's holy 
Scriptures, to retain those prayers and supplications 
which were heard from the pious of early times, and 
which faithfully minister true religion ; to construct 
a form of public worship which shall consult less for 
the senses than the understanding, which shall be 
contrived less for the indulgence of the fancy than 
the amelioration of the heart, and yet which shall be 
suitable to all the faculties of man's nature, and ac- 
commodated to all the necessity of his condition, be 
this the honor of the Church of England, be this her 
art, these her " barbarous accomplishments.'' 

The unrivalled authority, observes Bishop Jebb, 
ascribed by the Church of England to the written 

# 



308 



GUIDE TO AN 



word, is a fact of such notoriety, as to supersede the 
necessity of express evidence. Her subordinate re- 
verence for pious antiquity, may be less obvious to 
the superficial observer ; but it admits of no less irre- 
fragable proof. 

The liturgy of our Church is a permanent and sub- 
stantial witness. Regard for ancient faith and piety 
is manifest in every page, and almost every para- 
graph of that incomparable work ; derived, as it is, 
for the most part, from the actual forms, and accord- 
ant, as it is, in all parts, with the spirit and feeling, 
of Christian antiquity. Nor was this derivation and 
accordance the mere growth of circumstances; it 
was the deliberate result of free choice, and discri- 
minative wisdom. In the preface to the Common 
Prayer, " concerning the service of the Church," 
we are directed " to search out by the ancient Fa- 
thers, for the original and ground of divine service." 
And, in the same preface, " the godly and decent 
order of the ancient Fathers," is referred to, as the 
standard of our worship. But the standard of our 
worship is, in truth, the standard of our faith. For, 
we may boldly challenge our adversaries, to produce 
any one article of our faith, which is not contained 
in the formularies of our worship, or any one sen- 
tence in the formularies of our worship, which is not, 
in letter, or in spirit, contained in the writings of the 
ancient Church."* 

* The following extract is from a work, to which it is not 
becoming that I should offer praise. It has had its honor, and it 
has experienced the common fate of most modern attempts to 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



309 



Thus the Liturgy of the Church of England has 
been not only an instrument of devotion, but also a 
guardian of the faith ; while the ceremonies which 
the Church of Rome has substituted in place of 

assert principle without conciliating party or power: — "The 
reign of Edward the Sixth seems to have been intended, prin- 
cipally, to give form and consistency to the new doctrines which 
had gained, in the preceding reign, considerable strength, 
though they enjoyed such a limited toleration. As under 
Henry the circumstances of the times, the character of the 
prince, and a variety of singular events, gave a direction to the 
spirit of reformation by which the object to be attained was 
most likely to be accomplished, — so under Edward those 
persons became invested with power, who, by their learning, 
piety, and the confidence which was reposed in them, were the 
best qualified for advancing its growth, and conferring upon it 
that character by which it might be afterwards enabled to out- 
live the change of times, and to withstand the shock of accident. 
It is obvious that those forms of worship which are accommo- 
dated to the enthusiastic strains of piety in which all new sec- 
taries love to indulge, are little suited to the more subdued and 
chastened devotion which prevails, after the angry passions, 
which have been roused up and kept alive by controversy, have 
been tranquillized, and after the people may have subsided into 
a greater degree of sober -mindedness. Many feelings, not of a 
religious nature, enter unawares into the minds of men, who, no 
matter with what sincerity soever they may be engaged in the 
search of truth, are opposed to power, undergoing hardships, 
and suffering persecutions; and these they unavoidably com- 
municate to their followers, who thus become filled with a 
spirit, which, though well calculated at the time for sustaining 
their faith and disseminating their principles, cannot last longer 
than the exasperating circumstances which had produced it re- 
main, and must entirely vanish as soon as their religion shall 
have attained any tolerable degree of composure and stability. 



310 



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prayer, are of a character to admit of so wide a lati- 
tude of interpretation, that, as we have already seen, 
the Ritual which conveyed to the Irish Gentleman 
the touching story of the early Church, reminding 
him of night and unwholesome caverns, was intended 
to signify the death and passion of our Lord Christ, 
and the Gospel which was preached to all nations. 
Such diversity of explanation must ever result from 
framing public prayers in a language not understood 
of the congregation, and relying on pictures, and 
gestures, and ceremonies, to convey intelligence of 
the supplications made, and the mercies commemo- 
rated. The Church of Rome is distinguished from 
all Protestant communions, and opposed to the letter 
as well as the spirit of God's word, in their appoint- 
ment of their Latin Mass. 

To a reflecting man it will be very difficult to 
excuse the departure from a Scriptural precept in 
the adoption of an unknown tongue. He can find 
no apology for such an adoption in its advantages, 
and no authority for it in edifying example. It was 
not in an unknown tongue Christ instructed his dis- 
ciples when they besought that he would teach them 
to pray. It was not an unknown tongue the apostle 

It should, therefore, be the object of the wise and enlightened 
reformer, in embodying a form of prayer which he proposes to 
be fixed and permanent, to proceed in his work with as little 
reference as possible to the passions and prejudices of the times. 
Thus alone can his labours be attended, ultimately, with the 
requisite success ; and thus alone is he likely to attain a truly 
humble and dutiful expression of Christian feeling." — Agency 
of Divine Providence, p. 60. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 311 

recommended, when he said, " If I pray in an 
unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my under- 
standing is unprofited. How is it then ? I will pray 
with the spirit, and I will pray with the understand- 
ing also." The Scriptures are full of instances in 
which prayer is recited, as having been uttered by 
individuals, as addressed by an assembled people — 
can any instance be produced of prayer made in an 
unknown tongue, and recommended as a salutary 
practice ? Surely the answer to this question is of 
no light moment. If, throughout the entire expanse 
of the Scriptures, amidst the various instances of 
private and public prayers with which it is illustrated, 
we find every where clear and cogent assurance that 
effectual petition was breathed out in a language 
which the supplicant understood, and are instructed, 
that the only record of prayer in an unknown tongue 
has been accompanied with a reprobation of the 
practice — how shall it be maintained that those 
notions of dignity or convenience which would up- 
hold a system rejected alike by reason and revelation, 
are notions which may be retained by those who 
in the slightest degree respect the authority of man's 
judgment, or of the holy Scriptures. 

The Church of England, as all Protestant com- 
munions, holds, that the prayer of the spirit and the 
understanding, is the reasonable service which the 
Lord approves ; and cannot discern in the uniformity 
which ignorance accompanies, or the varieties of 
thought and opinion to which it affords occasion, any 
thing which can justify or excuse an unauthorized and 
unprecedented practice. She sees too, as its conse- 



312 



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quences, evils very deeply to be deplored. She sees, 
in the compulsory adoption of the Roman tongue, a 
provision for that " attractive Paganism," by which 
Christianity has been disfigured ; and can well under- 
stand how, through its aid, the mythology of Roman 
poets, and the moralsof Roman philosophers may have 
insensibly chequered the purity of Christian doctrine, 
and vitiated the excellence of Christian precepts. She 
can understand, how idolatry, conquered and put 
down from its high places,may have retained the viru- 
lence of its animosity against pure religion, and, una- 
ble to combat in open war, studied cunning devices, 
and waged its language against the cross. By this 
artifice the great mass of mankind became excluded 
from the benefits of public prayer ; by this, Christian 
truth became corrupted in heathen exposition, and 
men were persuaded to believe that a form daily re- 
peated — originally a representation rendered neces- 
sary by the employment of a strange tongue, was in 
power and mystery, no less awful and appalling than 
that stupendous sacrifice of which it was a memorial. 
Let any member of the Church of Rome seriously 
reflect on the Missal and the Book of Common Prayer, 
and declare which is " the reasonable service." But, 
perhaps too much has been said on a practice which 
admits not of defence. The silence of the Irish Gen- 
tleman, his inability to extort a testimony in favor of 
this abomination, has left prayer in an unknown 
tongue, " a forsaken cause" which requires no formal 
condemnation. 

" The Liturgy of our Church is a permanent and 
substantial witness." This is a very important point 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



313 



of view in which the formularies of religion should 
be regarded. Articles of subscription serve to the 
same end, providing that, where there is honesty of 
intention, there shall be correspondence of character 
between the doctrines to be believed and the heart 
and understanding which are to receive them. It is 
sometimes said, that it would be quite sufficient to 
require the agreement of a minister to one or two 
leading points of faith, and leave him a Christian 
freedom of election in all matters of minor import- 
ance. But this so called freedom may be extremely 
injurious to both minister and congregation. There 
is, perhaps, no great truth which is not affected by 
considerations which, to the superficial, seem uncon- 
nected with it. Those who have reflected much on the 
operations of their minds are conscious that almost 
every important thought has, as it were, some satel- 
lites which never fail to accompany it ; and, although 
the connection may not be at first apparent, yet the 
constant recurrence of some of the secondary ideas 
when the principle has been remembered, and of the 
primary, when the subordinate notions present them- 
selves, shows that they all constitute one system. In 
religious doctrine, it will not be denied by the 
reflecting, that articles of the first importance are 
intimately concerned in matters of seemingly little 
moment, and that the interests of a great truth may 
be very seriously prejudiced by false notions respect- 
ing some of its dependancies so remote as to be 
thought wholly unconnected with it. The articles 
serve as warnings to mark out the space within which 
it is safe and profitable to have the mind employed. 



314 



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The Church of England requires that its ministers 
shall understand and believe them. It thus endea- 
vours to ascertain what manner of men shall be 
entrusted with its high commission, and to secure 
the species of instruction which its children are to 
receive. He who reflects upon the Articles of the 
Church of England will see, that, even in the less 
obviously important, they are well contrived to guard 
the great doctrines of faith ; and he will, it is proba- 
ble, find reason to believe that truths of the utmost 
moment may be lost, by the corruption of apparently 
unconnected principles, with no less certainty than 
the interests of a great nation may suffer by the de- 
struction of her colonies. 

The evils which have arisen, from the want of some 
species of subscription, are too numerous and too well 
known to need a comment. The notorious fact that 
a minister, and almost his entire congregation, have 
differed upon essential points of Christian faith, and 
have maintained their connection, because it was not 
necessary that the teacher should make public pro- 
fession of his belief, is quite sufficient to show the 
security which may be afforded in that public re- 
cital of a formulary of belief, which constitutes an 
essential part of the Church of England service. 
But, it may be asked, why require more — why com- 
pel the minister to assent more solemnly than the 
members of his congregation to Articles not of suffi- 
cient magnitude to have a place in our creeds ? The 
subscription of the minister is required, because he 
is to instruct ; because it is necessary not only that 
he preach the great truths of the Gospel, but that he 



IRISH GENTLE3IAN. 315 

preach nothing alien, nothing derogatory thereto ; and 
this, it is probable, he might do, if he were a person 
incapable of understanding the Articles of the Church 
of England, or, if he disregarded the directions and 
the warnings they are well calculated to convey to 
him. 

By means of the Liturgy, the public service, in 
which it is impossible for both minister and congrega- 
tion to be deceived, (by which, indeed, it is provided, 
that, whatever the minister be, he must declare the 
doctrine of the Church,) the permanence, as it has 
been wisely observed, of our Church system has been 
studiously cared for. It may be added, that, in the 
sermon, necessary to complete our public formula- 
ries of devotion, provision is made that the Church 
shall keep pace with the advance of society; the 
minister being stimulated by the exactments of a 
public and periodical duty, to order his studies and 
his habits of thinking, so as that all his faculties and 
arguments shall be dedicated to the great object of 
illustrating Christian truth and exemplifying the effi- 
cacy of the Church in which he is a teacher. 

Thus, it maybe said, is Mr. Coleridge's noble idea 
of a perfect system realised in the structure of the 
Church of England. It has been careful of the two 
essential principles, permanency and progression. 
With sufficient power of accommodation to the ne- 
cessities which may arise, or the changes which may 
take place in society as knowledge advances, it is 
effectually guarded against such concession, to the 
caprices of a fickle people, or the circumstances of a 
difficult period, as might cause it to lose its distinctive 



316 



GUIDE TO AN 



character, and forfeit its independant station. Against 
all departures from the principle of the Church, the 
book of Common Prayer will be " a permanent and 
substantial witness ;" and while each minister in the 
Church of England collects the lights of modern art 
and literature, to illustrate and recommend the sa- 
cred truths he is privileged to declare, the liturgy, by 
w r hich, in part, his mind has been formed, is a link 
of association with early times, and causes our Church 
to be at the present day, with such accommodations 
as altered circumstances demand, the same that it 
was in the times of Polycarp or Ireneeus. 

The Church of Rome, with all its boastful preten- 
sions, has no such accommodation to present times, 
and no such carefulness for the doctrines and prac- 
tices of antiquity. 

Its character is such, that as knowledge increases, it 
must decline. Most consistently, therefore, it pro- 
nounces that the reason of its votaries shall not be free, 
and'that the noblest faculties of the human mind must 
toil in a condition w T hich, if they were indulged with 
the slave's hope, might be compared to that of the 
wretched diamond searchers, to whom the costly- 
ness of the splendid productions for which they 
painfully explore, renders the tyranny which en- 
closes them more cruel, and the suspicion under 
which they ply their miserable task, more vigilant 
and hateful. They, however, have a hope that 
they may discover the gem of great price, and be 
made free; but the slave of Rome cannot call his 
friends and neighbours to rejoice with him. He 
calls down a curse as he essays to go forth, and, if 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



317 



power second the will of the despotism which would 
coerce him, the efforts to detain or destroy will not 
be confined to the launching of spiritual maledic- 
tions. 

But, it has been said that the Church of England 
is a partaker in the iniquity of uncharitable denun- 
ciations. She has adopted the Athanasian Creed, 
and while she makes open profession than none who 
disbelieve the doctrine declared in that confession of 
faith, can be saved, she ought to be regarded as no 
less uncharitable and presumptuous than the Church 
which receives the Creed of Pius IV. 

The cases are different. The utmost that can be 
charged upon the Athanasian Creed is, that it pro- 
nounces as essential to salvation those great doctrines 
which the great majority of Christian congregations 
hold. There is some difference between this, and the 
invoking condemnation on all who will not receive 
all the articles of all the general councils, Lateran 
and Constance inclusive ; who will not receive 
traditions of which they know not the nature or 
name ; who will not swear true obedience to a po- 
tentate towards whom the character of true obe- 
dience has never yet been ascertained ; who will not, 
in short, undertake to receive whatever, as an object 
of faith, his Church may propose to them. There 
surely is difference here, even supposing the charge 
against the Church of England substantiated to its full 
extent. 

In the second place, a difference must be acknow- 
ledged between the language of caution and that of 
malediction. The Church of Rome says, whosoever 



318 



GUIDE TO AN 



wffl not believe this let hiin be accursed — Anathema 
esto. The Church of England prays for all heretics 
and schismatics, but at the same time delivers the 
warning, that certain doctrines are to be received 
as necessary to salvation. But why does she utter 
such a warning ?* Because otherwise she would 
not be a faithful Church, the Church of Christ. He 
uttered a warning when he commissioned his Apos- 
tles to teach. Were they to declare the doctrine, and 
suppress the lawful sanction by which it is to be 
enforced, they would have executed but half the 
duty assigned to them. Christ said, he that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned ; it is not true charity 
which, through fear of encountering the censure of 
superficial minds, or disturbing the repose of indiffer- 
ent, would shrink from the solemn duty of pronoun- 
cing the whole truth as it is in Jesus, and being faith- 
ful ministers of him who would not break the bruis- 
ed reed nor quench the smoking flax, but who would 
have souls awakened to a sense of their everlasting 
interests by all the motives, fear as well as hope and 
love, of which our natures are susceptible. 

* That our blessed Lord himself annexed a warning to the 
commission he gave the apostles should lead us to believe, 
that he will make it possible for all who come within the 
reach of instruction to believe in doctrines which are necessary 
not only because of positive precept but for their salutary influ- 
ence on the soul. The reasoning of superficial men is, con- 
demnation should not be annexed to, perhaps unavoidable, un- 
belief. The more correct inference would be, condemnation 
has been pronounced upon unbelief, therefore God will make 
belief attainable. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



319 



In truth the only question which should be pro- 
posed respecting the cautions with which a Church 
may declare her doctrines is this ; are they so applied 
as the head and founder of the Church directed. 
Let the Church of England be tried by this test, and 
the warning by which she bespeaks attention to the 
great doctrines of the Catholic Faith will no longer 
be confounded or classed with the Anathemas by 
which the Church of Rome reprobates all dissent 
from the creed of Pope Pius. In a word, the caution 
which the Church of England addresses is applied 
to the enunciation of the same doctrines to which 
the head of the Church applied it, and is to be un- 
derstood in the same sense and with the same quali- 
fications.* 

* That the Church of England is merely the faithful minister 
in pronouncing her warnings, may be readily understood by any 
one who will reflect on our Lord's commission to the apostles as 
given in the concluding chapters of the Gospels according to St. 
Matthew and St. Mark. It is evident, that, in both, the same 
discourse is related ; each Evangelist relating some one part 
more fully than the other. It is not, therefore, incorrect to 
read thus : 

St. Matthew, xxviii. 19. " Go ye, therefore, and teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 

St. Mark, xvi. 16. " He that believeth and is baptized shall 
be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." 

It might, perhaps, be well had these Scriptural expressions 
been read in the place of the present preamble to the Athana- 
sian Creed. The creed itself, (which is an exposition of the 
Faith,) is comprehended between the words « The Catholic 
faith is this" and " This is the Catholic faith and the verses of 



320 



GUIDE TO AN 



It will be admitted by all who reflect, that the 
case of that Church which warns in charity and truth 
where our Lord himself had uttered a solemn cau- 
tion, is very different from that of the Church which 
pronounces a malediction, if, in the most trivial par- 
ticular of her peculiar creed, she experience dissent 
or doubt. Other distinctions no less remarkable, and 
scarcely less favourable to the Church of England, 
will also present themselves to those, who, with the 
most ordinary attention, look for truth ; for example, 
the Church of Rome, boasting her infallibility, can- 
not refer her children or her adversaries to a single 
document in w T hich her faith is authoritatively de- 
clared. She is like a bankrupt who cannot produce 
his books, and should not be free from the suspicion 
which such an evidence of unfairness is accounted to 
justify. The Church of England, it is unnecessary 
to say, makes her profession and formulary of faith 
and worship public. The Church of Rome (however 
difficulty of circumstances or individual benevolence 
may have inconsistently relaxed the prohibition) 
straitly forbids the Bible to her children. The Church 
of England, even in her public devotions, as if she 
would always have the rule of God's word before her, 
makes the reading of Scripture a main part of her 
forms of worship. But it is unnecessary to continue ; 
the Church of Rome denies the right of private 
judgment; the Church of England educates and as- 

Scripture might, perhaps with advantage, be substituted for the 
expressions which at present precede and follow the Confession 
of Faith." 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



321 



sists the faculties which God has given ; the Church 
of England prays for and cautions those who disbe- 
lieve the great truths of religion ; the Church of 
Rome curses all who will not receive her dogmas 
with implicit reverence. The Church of England 
proposes her belief openly and with authority, so as 
that all men may say, thus and thus hath she taught ; 
this is the Church of England. The Church of Rome 
makes no such profession ; she resides with infallibi- 
lity ; and infallibility has never condescended to ma- 
nifest its presence in any accredited form of belief ; 
she offers individual testimony, contradictory opini- 
ons ; and has no uniformity except in the belief that 
all must be damned who dare to judge for themselves. 
Such is the Church of Rome ; a monstrous night- 
mare, without form or consistence, whose power is in 
the stagnation of abused human faculties, not in its 
own strength or subtlety; and which, if the judgment 
or the will can make but a single exertion to disco- 
ver that horror of thick darkness, or cast off that 
fell oppression, disperses and leaves its victim free. 

" The Church of England," it has been well said, 
" has always been more anxious to maintain a unity 
of spirit in the bond of peace, than a unity of pro- 
fession in the bond of ignorance. She knows that the 
diversities, apparent in the protestant community, 
are the diversities discovered by light ; and that the 
uniformit7 presented in the Roman Catholic Church 
is an uniformity occasioned by darkness* She can no 
more on that account prefer popery to protestantism 
than she can prefer night to day." 

Y 



322 



GUIDE TO AN 



" The Church of England loves order and disci- 
pline, but dislikes constraint and persecution. She 
would maintain her influence not by terror but by 
love. Hers is a mild and gentle sway ; and she aims 
at no more than inspiring her children with a free 
and filial obedience. Our Lord has himself used the 
comparison of a hen extending her wings over her 
callow brood, to express the concern which he felt 
for the Jewish people, and the tender protection 
which he would have afforded them against impend- 
ing calamities if they had hearkened to his voice. 
The same may be used to express the feelings with 
which the Church of England regards not only those 
who come to, and remain with, but those who leave 
her. Although she cannot love them all as her 
own, or see, without anxiety, some go to the woods 
and some to the water, yet she regrets not, on that 
account, having afforded them the fostering warmth 
whereby they were quickened into life ; and she 
is comforted by the persuasion, that although they 
have ceased to have her for their mother, they 
have not therefore ceased to have God for their fa- 
ther ; and that, in many instances, those whom she 
has lost on earth she will find in heaven.*" 

But we are not required to believe that our Church 
is absolutely perfect. On the contrary, we are in- 
cited, by a sense of human infirmity, to be perpe- 
tually on our guard against those circumstances in 
the shifting changes of society which may impair its 

* Observations occasioned by the letter of J. K. L. 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



323 



utility, and to use our utmost endeavours that its 
advantages may be as great as its soundness is ap- 
proved or its excellence undoubted. 

" Should it hereafter be the duty of any among 
my hearers to minister in country parishes, small 
experience will be sufficient to convince them, that 
this picture is not overcharged, that the standard of 
our Liturgical service is far above the average moral 
level of the country, of the Protestants of the conn- 
try ; that its conceptions are too pure, its fervors too 
chaste, its whole spirit too calm and elevated, to be 
discerned by the rude or relished by the carnal. 
What, then — shall we lower our Liturgy to the taste 
of the multitude? God forbid. On the contrary, 
we must apply ourselves with all anxious diligence 
to elevate the public mind up to the Liturgy and the 
Church."* 

Such is the language of one who was well ranked 
among the most distinguished of modern divines. 
How desirable that the wisdom of his precepts were 
realized in practice. Modern notions of reform are 
of a directly opposite character. They are, to ac- 
commodate the Church to the caprices of the times, 
instead of endeavouring to recommend it to the 
reason of an instructed people. Is there a hope that 
suggestions of a different species of reform may be 
heard, and that, amidst present clamours, attention 
can be gained to the consideration of a particular 
in which the interests of Church and people have 



* Remains of Doctor Phelan. 



324 



GUIDE TO AN 



been neglected, and to (what scarcely needs a formal 
statement, if the evil be confessed,) the proposal of a 
remedy. 

The Church which acknowledges the right of 
private judgment is especially bound to satisfy that 
judgment, the exercise of which it encourages. It 
is not very surprising that this obligation should not 
have always been present to the minds of those who 
govern in our Church, and that their admiration for 
the form of sound words, of which they understood 
the excellence, indisposed them to feel the necessity 
of providing for the great mass of the people such 
assistances as should enable them also to appreciate 
the Liturgy. The Church of England, in its public 
forms, is not more distinguished from some commu- 
nions by its uniformity of prayer, than it should be 
from the Church of Rome by the variety which may 
be found in its forms of exhortation. Abstaining in 
its public prayer from those occasional and incidental 
references which may serve to excite attention, it 
possesses in the discourse, without which the Sab- 
bath service is incomplete, provision for explaining 
the character of its worship and its creed, and show- 
ing how admirably it is accommodated to the wants 
of man, and in how faithful subserviency it acts to 
the lessons of our blessed Redeemer. 

Thus, the Church of England is especially and 
pre-eminently a preaching Church. She has given 
up, on the one hand, the sights and sounds, the 
dogmas and the practices, by which the Church of 
Rome upholds her influence. On the other hand, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



325 



she has denied to her ministers and members the 
advantages which may be found in great diversity 
and incidental applications. What has she taken in 
stead? A uniform system of prayer, to guard 
against the evils of inconsiderate variety ; a reason- 
able service in a known tongue, and " the foolishness 
of preaching," to set men's minds on right things, 
and preclude the perils with the advantages of ap- 
pliances which might cause the thoughts of a con- 
gregation to centre within their Church, rather than 
be uplifted to Him for whose service the Church was 
appointed. 

Can any reflecting man look upon the actual 
workings of the Church of England, without becom- 
ing persuaded, that, in no particular has she made 
less provision for the discharge of a most impor- 
tant duty, than in the department of preaching. 
Perhaps there never was, at any period of modern 
times, indeed of any times, a more exemplary and 
excellent body of men than the parochial clergy of 
Ireland. Their knowledge, their benevolence, and 
the purity of their lives, needs not my feeble eu- 
logy. They have had their praise where praise is 
fame, and needed not that the " splendor of adver- 
sity" should be cast upon them, to render their ex- 
cellence still more conspicuous. But while the me- 
rits of the parish ministers have won strong attesta- 
tions, it must be confessed, that the circumstances 
in which they are placed are not of that character 
which favours their endeavours to render the Church 
a great instrument of public good, by the efficacy 
of their preaching. 



326 



GUIDE TO AN 



It is absolutely necessary, here, to direct a brief 
attention to the distribution of Church property, 
because much of efficiency of any system must 
depend on the manner in which its revenues are 
applied. Perhaps the first observation that occurs 
to one who looks upon the statistics of the Church 
in Ireland is, that the towns appear to have been 
regarded as of less consequence than the rural dis- 
tricts, in the provision made for their religious in- 
struction. While the incomes of many of the paro- 
chial clergy in the country are not certainly above the 
deserts of those by whom they are held, they would 
seem to have but little reference to their peculiar 
exigencies. It is, undoubtedly, an anomaly, that 
ecclesiastical property shall be so distributed, as that, 
in almost all the towns, where calls upon the charity 
of individuals are so frequent, and where the neces- 
sary expenses of living are considerable, the income 
of the minister of religion shall be such, as, to a 
man born and educated as the clergy of the Church 
generally are, must be scanty. In consequence, 
the course of promotion is, from the duties of a 
town life, to retirement in the country. In this it 
may be said, the evil is not apparent ; but, if it be 
taken into account, that the congregation of a town 
is not that which should be left dependant on the 
instructions of a young person, one whose character 
and habits of thought have not yet been formed, 
and who, with the natural extravagance of youth, is 
perhaps studious of ornament, and ambitious of 
producing strong excitement, rather than earnest in 
advancing those sober truths, the moment of which, 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 327 

it may be, maturity of life can alone bring with it the 
power of understanding, the inference will not be 
deemed unreasonable that the endowments of a town 
parish should be such as would in all likelihood, 
insure to it the religious instruction and superintend- 
ence of one who had reached the full stature of mental 
growth, and who was at liberty, without distraction 
of thought or too great variety of duties, to give 
himself up to the advocacy and elucidation of 
Christian doctrine. 

The condition of the clergy in our great towns, 
then, if a real reformation be desired in the Church, 
should be carefully sought out and examined. It 
will be found that the natural influences have had 
their effect in the instance of every other body of 
ministers, and that the Church of Rome as well as 
the various congregations of dissenters, have their 
best endowments where the highest order of services 
is most needed. The Church of England has not 
been careful to make similar provision. 

In the next place, it is very desirable, that, in 
some particular instances, there should be a separa- 
tion made between the duties of a preacher, and 
those of the parish minister. It is essential that 
facilities should be afforded for the cultivation and 
exercise of talents, from which, under good govern- 
ment, the cause of religion and order would derive 
even more benefit, than from their exercise under 
less favorable circumstances it is likely to take hurt. 
The influence of a wise, and earnest, and attractive 
discourse, can scarcely be too highly estimated ; and 



328 GUIDE TO AN 

those who are desirous to see the best interests of 
religion advanced, may understand what an auxiliary 
they would have in the sober eloquence of wisdom, 
if they will but reflect upon the nature of the human 
heart, and see how much damage a good cause has 
sustained from inconsiderate but attractive declama- 
tion. The ministers of the Church of England in 
large towns, engaged in absorbing and fatiguing du- 
ties have little time to prepare for a task which is 
not to be accounted light ; namely, the conveying to 
a diversified congregation, the instruction upon 
which many may, perhaps, be altogether dependant 
for their religious knowledge. Such circumstances are 
not favorable to the devlopement of the excellencies 
of the Church. Surely they ought to be amended. 

In truth, it is in towns, now especially, the effi- 
cacy of the Church of England should be felt and 
exhibited. There was a time when the rural popu- 
lation constituted the great strength of the nation, 
and demanded the most attention. Peace, and war, 
and commerce, have produced great alterations ; and 
masses of men have become congregated in towns, 
who are brought more under the excitement of novel 
influences, and who are more disposed for change. 
If the Church of England had been observant of 
this alteration during its progress, and supplied those 
who had crowded into the moral wilderness of com- 
merce and manufactures, with the living bread which 
sustains spiritual life, the character of society would 
not wear the aspect which it has, unhappily, as- 
sumed ; and if, even now, an effort be made to re- 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



329 



medy the neglect, which has become so apparent in 
its disastrous consequences, a blessing will come 
upon the good endeavour, and God will grant a 
mitigation of evil. 



330 



GUIDE TO AN 



CONCLUDING ADDRESS TO THE ROMAN 
CATHOLIC READER. 



You who have journeyed with me over the weary 
and rugged road through which it was my office to 
be your guide, bear with me, if, in parting, I address 
you with a brief word of Christian exhortation. You 
are yet free to determine a matter in which your 
eternal welfare is involved. Use your diligence; 
be fervent in prayer, that you may determine 
wisely. You are passing through this life rapidly — 
you know not at what moment your course may be 
ended, and your light extinguished. Avail your- 
selves of the accepted time which God has given, 
and study to learn His will, who may, you know not 
in what moment, summon you to his judgment. 

You are taught to believe that Christ founded a 
Church on earth, and communicated to it the promise 
of a glorious inheritance. You learn that two sys- 
tems, strikingly contrasted with each other, claim, 
each, the glory of being the Church of which the 
Lord of Life is the head — that one of these makes 
its appeal to the Word of God, and directs you to 
satisfy yourself there as to " what is truth" — that the 
other puts that word away from you, and ordains 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



331 



that you shall seek no farther than her own word, 
because God hath bestowed upon her the privilege 
that she cannot err. Will you be contented to re- 
ceive, without inquiry, the professions of the one 
Church or the other, — will you not give time and 
thought, and that earnestness of inquiry which puts 
passion and prejudice aside, and be diligent to find 
the ancient paths in which the followers of Jesus 
walked, and in which all who enter shall find peace ? 
Remember that the only great object you should 
propose to yourself here on earth, is, that you may 
hereafter enter heaven. Do you provide most care- 
fully for this, by consenting to give up the en- 
dowment by which, according to God's appoint- 
ment, you are distinguished from the things that 
perish ? 

Do you, as a member of the Church of Rome, 
believe that God has set up, on this earth, a light 
which cannot mislead — has established a tribunal, 
from whose decisions He will not hear an appeal ? 
If you do, must you not — at least ought you not, in 
the same proportion as you desire God's favor, be 
solicitous to obtain the guidance, and to yield your- 
self to the authority by which it is his will you 
should be ordered and directed ? Are you sure that 
the Church of Rome rightfully challenges or claims 
as her own, this divine authority ? What are the 
grounds of your assurance ? Her dauntless asser- 
tions ? They are not more daring than his were to 
be, whom the Apostle prophetically terms " son of 
perdition," and who yet was " to sit as God, even in 
the Temple of God." The boast of the Roman 



332 



GUIDE TO AN 



Church cannot be prouder, the assumption more 
daring, than that of him whose coming, nevertheless, 
was to be after the manner of Satan. Will you 
then believe, on no other evidence than unsupported 
assertion, that God hath imparted to the Church of 
which you are a member, a portion of that attribute 
in which, your own reason, as far as you venture to 
use it, must strongly admonish you, nothing created 
can participate ? Will you, in this instance, abandon 
the principle which, upon every other occasion of 
your life, exercises strong influence over you ? Is 
there not, in all cases, an implied engagement on 
the part of him who brings strange tidings, that, in 
the same proportion as the demand on the credulity 
of his hearers is startling, so shall the evidence be 
constraining, by which he maintains his claim to be 
believed ? Is it a moderate claim for any establish- 
ment upon this earth to set up, that, upon important 
matters, it cannot err, — that, in a fallen world — con- 
stituted of fallen materials — tempted within, assaulted 
from without, by all vice and ungodliness, it has yet 
preserved the deposit of the faith so pure, that what- 
soever it defines, declares, and decrees, must be re- 
ceived, with an obedience prompt as we are bound 
to yield to the word of the living God ? Is this a 
moderate claim ? Infallibility ! ! ! I beseech you 
to take counsel of your reason. Is there aught in 
which you feel the omnipotent Jehovah more pecu- 
liarly distinguished from the creatures he hath made, 
than in this attribute, which the Church of Rome 
challenges as her own ? It is the condition of man 
to be liable to error ; and, so far as human agency is 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



333 



necessary to the administration of the holiest institu- 
tion, so far exposure to error must be experienced. 
Is it, then, an ordinary demand upon you, to believe 
that the Church of Rome has been exempted from 
this liability, and that the accusations of history 
against her, proclaiming that she has been perfidious, 
unholy, cruel, should have no effect in lessening the 
cordiality of your assent to the asseveration, that, 
nevertheless, she is infallible ? Is this a moderate 
claim ? Is it safe, without evidence, to receive it ? 
Do you require proof even for the existence of God ? 
Will you, without proof, believe that He has made 
the Church of Rome partaker in his infallibility? 

If you are among those who, without proof or 
examination, receive as truth, the declarations of the 
Roman Church, it is, be assured of very great mo- 
ment, that you search diligently, within your heart, 
the motives by which you have been affected. Some 
natures acquiesce in dogmas against which reason 
would revolt, rather than task their faculties with 
the labor of patient deliberation ; and are willing to 
accede to the most extravagant pretensions of the 
most aspiring Church, rather than be at the pains of 
examining whether these pretensions appear just, 
according to the light by which God has enabled 
them to discriminate truth from falsehood. It has, 
also, frequently happened, that individuals, thus easy 
with respect to their admission of spiritual claims, 
are, by no means, indifferent, in things relating to 
temporal advantage. As to the promise of future 
felicity ; as to the menace of the judgment ; as to the 
way and the truth ; the resurrection and the life ; all 



334 



GUIDE TO AN 



that concerns man, in his relation to a spiritual 
world, they are not very scrupulous in determining 
upon whom their reliance should be reposed ; but, if 
a confidence is demanded, by which their worldly 
interests may, in aught, be compromised, they will 
exercise no ordinary diligence, and, if the affair be 
of importance, will not suffer their eyes to take rest, 
while occupied in the interesting enquiry where they 
should place their trust. Is the heart of a man set 
on right things whose feelings are such towards 
heaven and towards the world ? What, do you ima- 
gine, does God expect of his creatures ? Even if you 
are uninstructed by the Bible, may not human reason 
teach you that he demands not alone obedience to a 
law obtruded on them, but, also, a solicitude to learn 
his will as well as to do it ? And, if there be found 
men, knowing themselves dependant on the divine 
mercy for every blessing which they possess, and, yet, 
indisposed to examine whether God has established 
a rule by the observance of which they may prove 
themselves not ungrateful ; if they are very watchful 
that their fellow-men shall fail in no point of service 
or respect to them, while they are altogether care- 
less, whether unto God shall be rendered the honor 
which is his due ; if, because a Church declare itself 
commissioned to exact and receive a tribute which 
(apparently) should be yielded only to our Almighty 
author, a pretext be afforded them for indulging the 
indolence of corrupt nature, and occasion seized for 
profaning a divine honor, do you imagine that an un- 
reasoning acquiescence in such a claim is a slight or 
pardonable error of the judgment ? 



IRISH GENTLEMAN. 335 

Could the enemy of souls devise a more effectual 
means of upholding his dominion, than the setting up 
of an establishment, whatever it might be, which 
should serve to engage and attach to itself the rever- 
ence belonging to the Lord ? I am not now speak- 
ing of the character of the Church of Rome. Our 
considerations are, for the present, limited to the 
carefulness with which she would prevent her cha- 
racter from being examined. But, I repeat my 
question; could Satan provide for himself a more 
useful support than in the establishment of an 
institution which should profess to be of God, 
and yet prohibit men from learning what God had 
taught ? The prince of the powers of darkness 
dare not, in his own undisguised nature, seek pro- 
selytes upon the earth ; but, if he can succeed, in 
turning sinners from the path which leads to peace, 
if he can withdraw creatures sick unto death from 
the blessed region where the sun of righteousness 
shineth, and where the gales are airs of healing, if 
he can procure for the germ of decay in the inner 
man, unmolested power and scope to mature its 
withering energy ; if he can lead from a system of 
which God is the life, and detain the ransomed of 
the Lord amidst superstitions which counterfeit di- 
vine mysteries, and under the government of a pride 
which challenges adoration as its right, has he not 
as surely made a prey of the lost and rejected 
beings whom he has enthralled, as if, at his first ap- 
proach, they viewed the ruler of fallen angels and 
worshipped him as their God ? 



336 



GUIDE TO AN 



You owe it to your hopes of eternal life, and, if 
you love the Church of Rome, you owe it to her, 
to ascertain the warranty for her doctrines and pre- 
tensions. You owe it to her, so far as you have 
power, to ascertain this, not learning merely from 
her unaccredited statements, but examining the evi- 
dence to which she refers, and examining, w ith equal 
carefulness, the evidence offered by those who assert 
that she would detain you in dangerous and deadly 
error. As you would not then, in heedlessness, 
make shipwreck of your soul — as you would not 
have claims which might, perhaps, derive support 
from God's word, received without examination and 
defended without authority — and, above all, as you 
would not rashly accuse the Divine Majesty of hav- 
ing seduced you into error, imputing to the Holy 
Spirit, the evils of your own ignorance and supine- 
ly ess ; judge for yourselves, whether the Church of 
Rome teach the truth. 

Protestants affirm, upon the authority of the di- 
vine word, that she hath corrupted the truth ; that 
her doctrines are false — her practices unholy — and 
that her ambition is as the ambition of him who, for 
his pride, was cast out of heaven. We affirm, that, 
however moderated expression may disguise the 
enormity of most arrogant pretensions, the authority 
which the Church of Rome demands to herself, is 
no less than a divided empire with the Creator 
and Saviour of the world. In what spirit will you 
hear our accusations made ? In anger ? If we 
speak without evidence, we do indeed richly merit 
the censure which should be severely visited on 



i 

IRISH GENTLEMAN. 387 

rash and indecent declamation ; but, if we speak the 
truth !— Oh that you may know — hear what we have 
to say with patience — fortify yourself with all the 
knowledge which you can call in to the aid of your 
cherished prepossessions, but, at the same time, as 
you are not dedicated to the cause of your Church but 
to the cause of God, as you have not devoted your- 
self to an eternal alliance with any system which the 
Gospel light may expose as an impure and an idola- 
trous worship — do not reject the testimony of even 
gainsay ers, if, opposed though it be to your preju- 
dices, it is found, on examination, conformable to your 
reason. Let the words of God himself have influ- 
ence with you — " stand ye in the ways," be found in 
the places where knowledge may be obtained — be 
engaged in the pursuits which are in themselves 
salutary, and whose end is truth. " Ask for the 
old paths." Yes, " the old paths" — the paths where- 
in Christ taught his disciples to walk — the paths 
which the early Christians, amidst all the fierce- 
ness of fiery persecutions, found to be paths of plea- 
santness. Ask for those old paths — to which the 
Church of Rome boasts she alone can conduct you— 
the paths, in which she declares that she has always 
accustomed her children to walk, while yet she has 
not scrupled to call up around them an atmosphere 
impermeable to the blessed light of the Gospel. 
Yes ; ask for the old paths, and if you find the illus- 
trious men, the martyrs, the confessors of purer 
days, the testimony of holy Scripture, the deduc- 
tions of human reason — if you find what is clearest 
in God's word — what is best in man-— the venerable 

z 



338 



GUIDE TO AN 



sanction of antiquity — the lights of cultivated times — 
guiding you to paths which yet you have not known ; 
and if, on the other hand, the Church of Rome 
should only be able to interpose against all such so- 
lemn and cogent appeals, her solitary warning, her 
unholy malediction — what will you say ? will you 
continue in darkness ? or, will you come where the 
united energies of whatever is good, whatever is 
pure, and whatever is of good report unceasingly 
attract you ? 

But, it is said, the old paths are those to which 
the Church of Rome conducts. I implore God's 
grace that, if they be, you may continue in them ; — 
but, whatever they be, let not your continuance be 
the result of accident or indifference. If you have 
not examined, you have not chosen. The act of 
parents and friends has introduced you to the Church 
of Rome. In their decision, without enquiry or 
knowledge, you have acquiesced. Convert your ac- 
quiescence into deliberate choice, or exchange it 
for the rejection of detected error. Whether the 
Church of Rome be sound or corrupt, your attach- 
ment to her cannot be praiseworthy, unless it imply 
that you have examined, and that you approve her. 
The word of God commands, that you ask for the 
old paths. It is not sufficient, it is not a compliance 
with his command, that you should merely walk in 
them. In the name then of Him who has thus com- 
manded ; ask for the old paths ; ask, are the paths in 
which your steps have been conversant, those old 
good ways in which God has commanded you to 
walk ; ask how have you endeavoured to ascertain 



IRISH GENTLEMAN, 



339 



that they are. If you obt&in an answer by which 
your conscience is satisfied ; if you have sought, and 
sought as God directs, and if your search has ended 
in a full and clear conviction, that you know all the 
the doctrines of the Church of Rome ; all the paths 
to which she directs ; and that all are holy and good ; 
pray that you may have grace to manifest the pureness 
of your faith in pureness of living, and that those who 
are without may see your good works and glorify God. 
But, if doubt cause itself to be felt within you ; if your 
search has not been diligent or well directed ; if you 
know not all the mysteries and labyrinths of the Ro- 
man Church, or, have discovered in it what God's 
word has forbidden, pray that you may be assisted in 
your further inquiries. Let your doubts be tried by the 
test of God's holy word, not resisted and subdued by 
blind obstinacy of purpose. Do not reject even the 
assistances offered in the preceding pages. Let the 
plain statements they contain be compared with the 
articles and arguments of the Church of which you 
are now a member. Let the entire controversy be 
compared with a still holier standard. If the examina- 
tion of the important topics which have been here im- 
perfectly discussed, be undertaken in a suitable spirit, 
the result is not matter of uncertainty. I have no 
fear while I pray for your success. May God cause 
the truth to prevail with you— may a divine bene- 
diction be sent down upon your labors— may your 
inquiries be so guided as to lead you into all truth— 
and may you be blessed with such a thorough and a 
saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, in 



340 GUIDE TO AN IRISH GENTLEMAN. 



all meekness and humility, you will follow him 
through the old paths — the good way—* the way of 
peace — into the mansions where his disciples shall 
be made like unto him, and shall know him as 

he is. 



341 



APPENDIX I. 



« I profess that there are truly and properly seven sacraments 
of the new law, instituted by our Lord," &c. &c. — Creed of 
Pius IV. 

St. Augustine, Epist. ad Januar. 

" Our Lord has placed us under an easy yoke, whence by 
sacraments very few (paucissimis) in number, very easy in ob- 
servance, most excellent in signification, he hath bound together 
the society of his new people — as is Baptism consecrated in 
the name of the Trinity — the communion of his body and 
blood — and if there be any thing else commanded in the Cano- 
nical Scriptures," 

In Johan. 

" From his side, pierced with a spear as he hung on the 
cross, the Sacraments of the Church flowed forth." 

Let him sleep in death — let his side be opened — and let the 
Virgin Church come forth, that as Eve was formed from the 
side of sleeping Adam, so the Church also may be formed 
from the side of Christ hanging on the Cross. His side was 
wounded, according to the Gospels, and immediately came 



APPENDIX. 



thereout water and blood — water in which the spouse is puri- 
fied, blood from which she is dowried. 

Chrysostom, Horn. 84. in Johan. 

" For there came forth water and blood. Not casually and 
without meaning did these fountains issue forth — but because 
of the two, the Church is constituted. The initiated know 
this — for by water they are regenerated ; in the blood and flesh 
they are nourished. Hence the Sacraments have their origin — 
that as often as you come to the sacred chalice, you come as if 
to drink from the side." 

Cyril of Alexandria. 

" Whence blood mingled with water issued forth, and was, as 
it were, a certain image and primitise of the mystical eucharist 
and holy baptism." 

Ambrose 

Has written a treatise on the Sacraments, which consists of dis- 
courses on Baptism and the Lord's Supper. His tacit rejection 
of the five Romish additions is the more remarkable, from the 
circumstance of his having written a treatise on penance, or re- 
pentance. 

EUCHARIST. 

Travels of an Irish Gentleman, p. 162. Vol. I. from Cyril 
of Jerusalem — " The bread and wine, which, before the invoca- 
tion of the adorable Trinity, were nothing but bread and wine, 
became, after this invocation, the body and blood of Christ." 
Such is the Irish Gentleman's citation. Cyril wrote — " For as 
the bread and wine," &c. &e. " so, in like manner, these meats 
of the pomps of Satan are in their own nature pure, but by in- 
vocation of daemons are rendered impure." 

That is to say, the change which takes place in the elements 



APPENDIX. 



343 



is of the same kind with that which is effected in meats offered 
to idols; the substance of the latter (and therefore of the 
former) remaining, the qualities of each being altered. 

Let this serve as a sample of the disingenuousness or the 
indiscretion with which the Irish Gentleman quotes, and let one 
instance spare the necessity of further similar exposure. 

Cyril of Alexandria, Com. in Johan. C. 6. 

" From your thoughts, I discern, he said, that, without under- 
standing, you think this earthly body has been said to be, in its 
nature, vivifying. But this is not the scope of my words, for 
all my discourse to you is concerning the divine spirit and life 
everlasting." 

Thus Cyril, who, in the former part of his commentary on 
the 6th Chapter of the Gospel of St. John, wrote in terms from 
which the advocate of Transubstantiation might have quoted, 
here explains his preceding observations, in such a manner as to 
prove that he fully assented to such a canon of interpretation as 
that which St. Augustine proposed. Cyril of Alexandria seems 
to have written in more forcible language, respecting the 
Eucharist, than any of his cotemporaries. His mind, con- 
stantly occupied in his controversy with Nestorius, finding, in 
the doctrine of the Eucharist, an argument which had much 
power against his adversary, his language, naturally, was more 
forcible than, under other circumstances, it would have been ; 
but it was sufficiently guarded by occasional explanations, such 
as made known the character of his observations on St. John. 
The Irish Gentleman has quoted what he calls a declaration of 
Cyril's on the Eucharist, which was approved by the Council 
of Ephesus. Here there are two mistakes. Cyril's was not a 
declaration of the doctrine of the Eucharist — it was an argu- 
mentum ad hominem employed against Nestorius, and one in 
which the doctrine, received in a figurative or a literal interpre- 
tation, would be equally effective. In the second place, it does 
not appear that there was any approval whatever by the Council. 
On the contrary, the passage from Cyril is found in Labbe and 



344 



APPENDIX. 



Cossart, among the things which were transacted before the 
meeting of the Council — " Qua continentur ea quse synodum 
antecesserunt." 

Jerome, Com. in Eccl. 

" This is our only real good in the present life, if we feed on 
the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood, not only in the Sacra- 
ment, but also in the reading of the Holy Scriptures." 

Origen de Recta fide. 

" But if, as they say, he had not flesh and blood, of what 
flesh or of what blood, giving bread and the cup as types, did 
he command the disciples, through them, to commemorate 
him." 

The Saxon Homily for Easter (10th Century.) 

" By virtue of the Word of God, it is truly his body and 
blood ; yet not corporally, but spiritually." 



I shall not occupy more space with superfluous quotations, 
but would venture to express a hope, that the copious and 
valuable selections which Mr. Finch has made, and of which 
he has bestowed some copies on his friends, he would indulge 
the public, and benefit a great cause, by allowing to be more 
largely distributed. 

In the text I have cited a passage from one of Dr. Phelan's 
admirable discourses. I cannot deny my reader the gratification 
he will derive from perusing an ampler extract. 

" It has been said, that no great and good man ever despaired 
of the fortunes of human kind. And of all men, those admi- 
rable persons who conducted our Reformation, were, perhaps, 
least influenced by any such despondency. They executed 
their task, in the fulness of faith, and even amidst the concus- 



APPENDIX. 



345 



sions of this tempestuous season, there are not a few signs, that 
all things are now working together, for the consummation which 
they anticipated. Their labours were calculated, prophetically 
calculated, for an advanced stage of human society : not merely 
for a stage, in which the arts of life, and the refinements of 
secular literature, have been brought to a high polish ; but for 
a stage, in which the capabilities of man, in the fulness of 
his nature, as a being favored to associate with angels, and to 
hold high communion with his God, are expanded and matured. 
As this mysterious nature is more fully explored, as that king- 
dom of Christ, for which we daily pray, more visibly approaches, 
in the same proportion, will the devotional forms of our Church 
be more duly appreciated. But in the mean time, it has to 
struggle against many difficulties, because it will not descend to 
unworthy arts of popularity. It does not solicit, it does not 
acknowledge, except for the purpose of purifying or condemn- 
ing them, any of the meaner principles of our nature. It has 
no ceremonial pantomine, to entertain the senses ; no spell of 
shadowy terrors, to fascinate the will ; no fanaticism, to agitate 
the sterner passions of the soul. It does not prophesy smooth 
things, or cry peace where there is no peace ; it does not flat- 
ter the selfishness of the heart, by preaching a monopoly of 
divine favor ; it does not practice on the foolish pride of reason, 
by the introduction of local or incidental topics. Thus, it has 
less in common with grosser minds, than, perhaps, any other 
form of Christianity in the world. It must struggle against 
nearly the same obstacles, as the Gospel itself ; against slowness 
of heart, darkness of intellect, torpor of conscience, to some 
appearing a stumbling block; to others, foolishness." 



346 



APPENDIX 2. 



The reader has seen many instances of the manner in which 
the Fathers have been, by a process of torture, constrained to 
testify to what, in their hearts, they abhorred. The kindness 
of a learned friend, the Rev. Charles Minchin, has supplied 
me with an instance of similar practising on the testimonies of 
divines of the Church of England. " The testimonies of 
Hooker and Jeremy Taylor on this subject," observes the Editor 
of the Irish Gentleman's Travels, " though well known, are of 
too much importance not to be added to the above authorities. 
/ wish, says Hooker, men would give themselves more time to 
meditate with silence on what we have in the sacrament, and 
less to dispute the manner how. Sith we all agree that Christ 
by the sacrament doth really and truly perform in us his pro- 
mise, why do we vainly trouble ourselves with so fierce conten- 
tions, whether by consubstantiation or else transubstantiation ? 
Ecclesiastical Polity.'* 

In this passage, as quoted by the Irish Gentleman, there are, 
as it would seem, two sentences each of them complete, and 
the entire appearing one continuous extract. The reader who 
wishes to verify the quotation will find, by referring to the Fifth 
Book of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, that it consists of two 
fragments of sentences, one of which he will find at page 286, 
Vol. II. of the London edition, 1830, and the other, separated 
by three pages of close print at page 289, the interval being 



APPENDIX. 



347 



occupied by explanations which leave it impossible to misunder- 
stand the meaning of the expressions which "the Travels" 
have recited. For example, the following sentence which is 
found a little before the Traveller's concluding fragment, indi- 
cates with sufficient clearnness that Hooker was not advocating 
transubstantiation. " If on all sides it be confessed that the 
grace of baptism is poured into the soul of man ; that by water 
we receive it, although it be neither seated in the water nor the 
water changed into it, what should induce men to think that 
the grace of the Eucharist must needs be in the Eucharist before 
it be in us that receive it" One would be tempted almost to 
call the hardihood which could produce two fragments divided 
by such a sentence as this, and write them into the semblance 
of a testimony for Roman doctrine, an instance of boldness 
having few parallels; but in the Church of Rome there are 
many such. There appears too, under the influence of that 
Church, to be a uniformity of falsification, which but for the 
miracles which characterize it, would seem unaccountable ; 
Doctor Milner, in his End of Controversy, having mangled 
and misassorted the sentences with precisely the same happy 
rashness as the Irish Gentleman. 

" When these things do so conjointly meet," &c. 




/f tsa, % i 

-#i — *i 

348 £Fi J &7 ^ 



APPENDIX 3. 



Cone. Trid. Sess. 22, Dec. de Obs. 

« Since the many things, whether through infelicity of # th 
times, or neglect of men and their improbity, appear to hav 
crept in, which are alien from the dignity of so great a sacrifice 
&c. &c. the holy Synod decrees, that bishops, &c. &c. sha 
take away whatever either avarice, the service of idols, or irre 
verence which can scarcely be separated from impiety, or si 
perstition, the spurious counterfeit of true piety, has intrc 
duced." 



THE END. 



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